Judge Robert Downer has been endorsed for Circuit Court Paul Peatross’ seat by the Madison-Greene Bar Association, The Hook reports. Downer was endorsed by the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association earlier this month. There is widespread speculation that Reps. Rob Bell and Bill Janis intend to nominate Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos for partisan reasons, despite that four municipalities’ bar associations have now given him a vote of no confidence.
cvillenews.com
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
C-Ville Weekly has set up a totally rad feature on their site: an interactive map of where development is taking place in Albemarle County. I’m always glad to see media outlets using the technology available on the web to its full capacity, rather than just dumping their print content on there and calling it a day. (Via Jim Duncan)
Via Bill Emory, there are a pair of interesting articles on the topic of growth.
First is Jeremy Borden’s article in today’s Daily Progress, about developers who believe that development shouldn’t be regulated. (There’s a shocker.) Wendell Wood thinks that planning within growth areas “smacks of socialism” while an attorney for area developers says she “feels very strongly that it’s not needed.”
The flip side of that coin comes in today’s Washington Post editorial that summarizes the pair of fascinating articles by Michael Laris and David S. Fallis in last week’s Post [1, 2] about corruption in Loudoun County after pro-development forces took over the Board of Supervisors. Loudoun developers, complaining about growth restrictions, managed to get all of those restrictions removed and make themselves and their friends on the BoS extremely wealthy in the process. Prosecutors launched an investigation into the case mere days after the story was published.
There is no more powerful political force in Albemarle County than developers. They are debatably the most powerful political force in the state. Their motive is profit (and rightly so), not the interests of Charlottesville and Albemarle County; the two overlap, but only slightly. The notion that we should abandon planning to them is frightening. Bill Emory suggests a simple test to consider the intentions of a real estate developer: Does s/he live in the area that will be developed, and will s/he continue to live there after it’s developed?
Finally, from Jim Duncan comes word of SB988, which would permit the county to regulate construction in order to protect viewsheds for the purpose of tourism. (Such as the view from Monticello, presumably.) The bill specifically states that decisions would be made by county staff, without a public hearing, though appeals may be made to the planning commission. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Creigh Deeds, tells Jim that he introduced the bill at the request of the Board of Supervisors.
01/30 Update: Jeremy Borden writes in today’s Progress that Biscuit Run will require widening 20 South, a $17M project, but developers have only offered $5.5M to the county in total. That doesn’t even include the many, many additional improvements needed to handle the increased population: four new traffic signals, eight new intersection improvements and, of course, schools, police, fire, rescue, jail capacity, water, etc. So the $5.5M is to, what, put the thing on layaway?
Judicial nominations were introduced to and passed by the Senate and the House of Delegates today — Judge Bob Downer has been appointed to the 16th judicial district to replace Judge Paul Peatross, effective June 1. Downer was one of the two candidates recommended by the bar, so his appointment comes as no particular surprise.
1:45pm Update: “iknowcville” points out that Downer has simply been reappointed to the same seat in this bill, making everything that I wrote entirely wrong. Or, rather, it may turn out to be correct, but that would just be a lucky coincidence. SR43, which makes the circuit court nominations, is entirely silent on Peatross’ replacement.
01/24 Update: Bob Gibson writes that Downer’s reappointment may well indicate that he’s out of the running for Peatross’ seat. In an interview with Del. Bill Janis it becomes clear that our representatives have no interest in following the bar’s recommendations and see this appointment as political, rather than merit-based, unlike virtually everybody else in the community.
In a press release, the county has announced that real estate values in the county have risen by an average value of 30% since the last biannual assessment, in 2005. Assessments increased by 27% in 2003 and the same percentage in 2005. By my math, that’s a 109% increase in property values in the past six years, which is a fantastic rate of return if you’re investing, but not so hot if you have no intention of selling your home.
Note that this is only a calculation of the market value of properties — the rate reflects the realities of real estate prices in the area, and not any taxation decision on the part of the county. Albemarle is free, of course, to adjust their tax rate downward, rather than increase revenues by over a quarter, in order to ease the burden on property owners.
The Hook and The Daily Progress have more.
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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