The Charlottesville Albemarle Airport is planning a major expansion, Nate Delesline III reports for The Daily Progress. They’re spending $600k to design a new security area, bigger bathrooms, move the gift shop, replace the escalator, expand the seating areas, and a few other changes. No money has been allocated by state or federal officials for the construction, which CHO figures will run between $4 million and $6 million. Construction is due to start in the summer.
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News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
A pretty nervy redevelopment plan for the south side of downtown has been proposed, Brian Wheeler reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. An architecture firm was hired by the city to envision how to overhaul the area encompassing the Ix Building, Crescent Hall, and Friendship Court, a pretty broad swath of the greater downtown area. The plan calls for the construction of 1,300 new housing units, 1.4 million square feet of commercial space, and bringing Pollocks Branch (a stream long ago buried in pipes) back to the surface as a linear park running through the whole area. It’s all meant, of course, to be pedestrian-friendly. The rendering shows Friendship Court completely gone, replaced with the housing units—surely an alarming image to residents of the low-income neighborhood, although the involvement of the Piedmont Housing Alliance (which manages Friendship Court) in the project is probably a good sign.
At this point it’s all just a vision—there is no developer proposing to do this, and no public funding available to kick-start such work. It’s what the city is calling a “Strategic Investment Area,” and presumably if City Council wants to make this happen, they’ll start shaping planning and development guidance to facilitate that.
Albemarle County has agreed to accept a gift of 410 acres to create a nature preserve, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. Montgomery Bird Woods and Jose V. Lambert tried to donate the land earlier in the year but, surprisingly, the gift was turned down at the recommendation of Albemarle County staff. The rationale for the rejection was that the county isn’t prepared to do anything with it, and they’re not in a position to prevent people from trespassing on parcel. The land is located on Route 29, just south of town, near Arrowhead Valley Road. The couple was frustrated by the decision, and invited county officials to visit, which they did. The solution was to partner with the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary and the Ivy Creek Foundation, who will act as caretakers, which will leave the county spending just $6,500/year on the land.
Confusingly—or perhaps fittingly—the park will be named “Woods Park,” in honor of Montgomery Bird Woods’s father, William Sharpless Derrick Woods, whose name you might know from “McGuire, Woods, & Battle.”
The Carmike six-screen theater on 29N is closing down, Graelyn Brashear reports for C-Ville Weekly. It became a $1.50 second-run theater a year ago, but that only stalled its demise briefly. That leaves Charlottesville an all-Regal town, with their six-screen theater on the Downtown Mall and their fourteen-screen theater in the Stonefield development.
Senator Creigh Deeds is hospitalized in critical condition with stab wounds, and his son Gus has died from a gunshot wound, police tell the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Creigh is receiving treatment at the UVA Medical Center. Police don’t yet know what happened. Creigh is, of course, the area’s state senator.
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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