The University of Virginia’s enormous, under-construction sports practice facility on Emmett Street caught fire yesterday, every area media outlet reports, sending up an enormous column of black smoke that was visible all over town. A layer of rubber atop the roof appears to have been lit by a contractor’s errant blowtorch, starting a fire that spread over a good chunk of the roof and created a challenging situation for responding fire crews to deal with. The $13M structure was slated for completion in August of next year, though presumably that will be pushed back now.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
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Developers are proposing a massive new pair of buildings for West Main Street, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow, that would put a mixed-use development on a vacant block. (Imagine you’re going from downtown to the university. You pass the train station and go over the bridge. On the university side of the bridge, on the left, is a parking lot used by Wahooptie, what used to be an auto shop, and an empty lot where a building was torn down 15–20 years ago. That whole block.) Coran Capshaw bought that block some years ago, and now he’s working with a few other developers to turn it into a 5-story and 8-story pair of connected buildings, containing 219 apartments, a restaurant, couple of retail spaces, and a parking garage. It’s being called “The Plaza at West Main.” The density of the housing and the height of the building with both require special use permits, and the Board of Architectural Review will have to approve it, since it’s in a historic district. The next step is for the Planning Commission to review it, which they’re doing next week.
In a 4-1 vote, City Council denied Black Market Moto Saloon a music permit at tonight’s meeting, Graham Moomaw writes for the Daily Progress. Owner Matteus Frankovich held live music performances at the Meade & Market restaurant for the first few months of its existence, until complaints of loud, late-night music caused the performances to come to the attention of the city, who pointed out that Frankovich had no permit to hold concerts. The owner applied to the Planning Commission for a special-use permit, who recommended a narrowly tailored permit, but City Council disagreed, presumably influenced in part by neighbors turning out and asking that it be denied. Some members of Council saw the period in which the venue was operating illegally as a good enough test run to find that it would be incompatible with the neighborhood. (Moto Saloon may not be thrilled with the April Foursquare tip that “if it gets too loud the bartender has earplugs.”) Frankovich says that his business’s success is contingent on the ability to host live music, and while he doesn’t intend to take the matter to court, he has threatened (jokingly, one assumes) to open a “nudie bar” instead.
Donald Trump has bought Patricia Kluge’s former mansion, the Washington Post reports, for just $6.5M. The 23,000 square foot Albemarle House was put on the market by Kluge in 2009 for a laughable $100M, which surely makes the $6.5M hurt all the more. She got the house as a part of her divorce settlement with John Kluge. Trump had already purchased all of the land around the house itself, including the lawn and the driveway, then made the place look like hell, all to make it impossible for Bank of America to sell the foreclosed mansion. They wanted $16M, he offered $3.6M, and this is where they wound up a little over a year later.
What’s Trump going to do with it? Maybe a golf course, maybe an inn, or maybe just waiting for the market to recover and selling it all for a tidy profit.
Playboy has named UVA the top party school in the nation, the AP reports. (Well, Playboy reports, but the story isn’t available online. I checked.) The university isn’t thrilled with the designation. It’s trailed by University of Southern California and University of Florida. This might make it tough for students to push back against city efforts to deal with noisy parties.
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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