Podcasts about state corporation commission

En à peine deux ans, l'intelligence artificielle est passée de technologie émergente à outil commun pour des millions de personnes. Si ses capacités ont fasciné, ses besoins énergétiques, eux, inquiètent déjà, et pour cause : le développement de l'IA dépend de data centers gourmands en électricité, et les effets sur les réseaux s'annoncent lourds. En effet, plusieurs États américains constatent déjà une hausse des prix de l'électricité, qu'ils attribuent en partie à la prolifération de ces infrastructures. Le Washington Post rapporte qu'en Ohio, Pennsylvanie, Virginie ou New Jersey, les factures pourraient grimper de 20 %.Selon Neil Chatterjee, ancien commissaire de la Commission fédérale de régulation de l'énergie, de nombreux responsables qui voyaient ces centres de données comme moteurs économiques se rendent compte que ces installations viennent avec des coûts élevés pour les consommateurs. Et tandis que les géants de la tech minimisent leur impact, la réalité des factures semble difficile à nier.La situation n'est pas sans risque : des services de régulation, comme la State Corporation Commission de Virginie, pointent déjà des tensions sur les réseaux, alertant sur des « problèmes et risques inédits » pour les distributeurs d'électricité et leurs clients. La France, avec son réseau de centrales nucléaires, attire désormais l'intérêt des grands acteurs comme Microsoft, qui s'assure une place dans ce mix énergétique stable mais non infini. Ces premiers retours interrogent : l'IA, moteur d'innovation, pourrait-elle devenir un fardeau énergétique ? Et à quel prix pour les consommateurs et les infrastructures ? Les mois à venir seront décisifs pour savoir si les ambitions de l'IA peuvent réellement rimer avec durabilité. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

The average Dominion Energy Virginia residential customer will soon see a charge of about .50 dropped from their bills. The fee was being collected to recover costs through the state's participation in the regional carbon market. On Monday, the State Corporation Commission, which regulates Virginia's utilities, approved a request from Dominion to stop tacking the fee on customer's bills to recoup the costs the utility racked up through participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which Virginia is no longer a part of. “At this time, the Company states it is no longer accruing RGGI-related compliance costs and is...Article LinkSupport the Show.

Earlier this week, lawmakers unanimously approved two new judges to serve on the State Corporation Commission; The Henrico County Board of Supervisors recently approved a number of resolutions related to the Fall Line Trail, which is planned to connect Ashland and Petersburg; A right-wing group that previously sued the New York Times is claiming a book by former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman includes “egregious lies.”

LINKS:Sponsor: Early Impact VirginiaLearn more about Jackleg MediaCheck out Black Virginia NewsIN THE NEWS: With two years to go before the election of Virginia's next governor, the field seems largely set. Republicans are likely to nominate either Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears or Attorney General Jason Miyares. As for the Democrat, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney is throwing his hat into the ring to challenge Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger. But are our candidates forgetting that there's a whole 2024 election in the way?House Bill number one and Senate Bill number one are both aimed at a top priority for the new Democratic majority -- raising the minimum wage from $12 an hour to $15 an hour. Members of the General Assembly will be hearing opposition from the business community. Democrats seemed poised to put a bill raising the minimum wage on the desk of Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who will have the power to amend or veto.The State Corporation Commission regulates everything from electricity and insurance to railroads and predatory lending. The commission has three members, although two seats are vacant, and Republicans and Democrats were unable to agree during the era of divided government. Now Democrats will get to fill the seat--with no input from the Governor. So who's going to fill them?TRIVIA: When was the last time Alexandria had an open seat for mayor? At the Watercooler:- The lack of support for Trish White-Boyd's run from the Democrats- Interesting new Committee Chairs in the House of DelegatesLearn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMedia

One of the consequences of Democrats taking control of the General Assembly is that Republicans will have no say in who serves on the State Corporation Commission. Michael Pope explains why.

Many of us currently use virtual communication platforms on a regular basis to communicate with colleagues, customers, friends, and family members. In today's episode, “Failure to Launch,” our guests will discuss an investigation involving an individual who, starting as early as 2006, raised over $25 million dollars from investors to establish a virtual communication platform that never came to fruition. The platform failed to launch NOT because of a weak internet connection, but because of his fraudulent actions.Though the discussion is based on an actual investigation, please note that certain names, facts, and information have been modified for education and entertainment purposes. Also, the views expressed by the speakers are their own personal views and do not represent the views of the State Corporation Commission or other personnel.

IN THE NEWS:Youngkin Signs Reparation Bill: Massive Resistance is a dark chapter in Virginia history, a time when Virginia closed public schools rather than integrate them. Now the governor is putting his signature on a bill introduced by Democrats that will extend an existing education fund to help victims of Massive Resistance who were denied education because of the racist policy.Stick It In Your Tailpipe: On the flipside, Governor Youngkin vetoed a bill that would create a work group to look at cars modified to have so-called "macho mufflers" that make a lot of noise. It's rare for a work-group bill to pass both houses of the General Assembly only to get vetoed, so Michael and Thomas discuss what might've happened.Regulating Dominion: The often-mentioned "Dominion Bill" has passed the General Assembly and is likely to see just a few technical amendments from the governor. That bill would restore power to the State Corporation Commission to help regulate Dominion's rates and profits.At the Watercooler:- Lots of last-minute campaign announcements in advance of last week's filing deadline.Trivia: In October 2020, we had a guest who predicted the events of January 6th, 2021. Who was that guest?Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

Episode Notes Here on the podcast, we like to keep tabs on Dominion Energy. As the largest of only 2 publicly regulated utilities in the state, Dominion is a monopoly. The caveat is that it's a state regulated monopoly, meaning its rates and profits are monitored by a regulatory agency called the State Corporation Commission. But the SCC's power has eroded the past few decades, thanks to a variety of bills that have been pretty soft on Dominion. This year's General Assembly changed that trend. In the final days of the session, the General Assembly passed sweeping legislation on Dominion. Among other things, it changes how profit margins are set and strengthens SCC oversight. That can mean pretty big things for both Dominion, and for ratepayers like us. To step us through the new legislation and its impact, we talk to Charlie Paullin, energy and environment reporter for the Virginia Mercury. But, that's just the latest news — and energy policy is measured more in decades than in years. One big inflection point happened back in 2020, with the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The law set a variety of energy standards, including that our energy providers be 100% renewable by 2050. But setting the standards and meeting them are two different things. So we talked to Kim Jemaine, policy director at Advanced Energy United, about the opportunities and challenges of the Clean Economy Act. This episode is special in other ways as well. This marks the last episode of Nathan Moore as the host of Bold Dominion. Today, Nathan hands off the baton to a new host, Aaryan Balu. You've heard his voice before… he was Bold Dominion's first Assistant Producer, going back more than three years. Welcome back, Aaryan! This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Episode Notes The 7th Annual UVA Flute Forum took place this past weekend. A few weeks ago, a man in custody at Central State Hospital was killed. Now seven deputies involved in the incident have been charged with murder. Some Virginia election officials are resigning in the face of threats and harassment--with some counties facing empty offices entirely. Virginia has a State Corporation Commission, but it still has just one member. House Republicans and Senate Democrats cannot agree on how to fill to empty seats. After the Silicon Valley Bank went belly-up earlier this month, the federal government promised to bail out its wealthy account holders. At one time, federal regulations would have prevented this kind of bank failure--but a 2018 law co-sponsored by Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner loosened restrictions on mid-sized banks. A new government report sheds light on a need for clarity on “earned wage access” programs--drawing parallels to the payday loan issues of the last decade.

IN THE NEWS:After our episode on retirements, we learned of two more members who say they won't be coming back, former Speaker Eileen Filler Corn and Senator Lynwood Lewis. That makes thirteen House members who say they will not run for reelection, and another thirteen say they won't run for reelection in the House because they're running for the Senate. The State Corporation Commission has outsized influence over how electric utilities are regulated, and the three member commission currently has only one member. That's because Democrats and Republicans can NOT agree on appointments. But does this inability for the SCC to regulate certain industries mean better outcomes in the face of climate changes?Whole milk was prohibited from school cafeterias a decade ago as part of the Department of Agriculture's School Lunch Program as part of the Obama administration Let's Move initiative. Now people are starting to second guess that idea, including Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat from Northern Virginia's 7th District. But does this really matter?At the Watercooler:- Republican Delegate Matt Fariss of Campbell County is facing two felony charges- Both Democrats and Republicans are both having a hard time getting people to run for the Loudoun County School Board as it comes under heavy national right-wing scrutiny.Trivia: What was the name of the Nazi leader who ran for governor in 1965? Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

More than ten years ago, Dominion Energy convinced Virginia lawmakers to clip the wings of the state's utility regulator, the State Corporation Commission. After a decade in which Virginia Power overcollected on its rates as an unregulated monopoly, the Legislature in Richmond had finally had enough and passed legislation restoring the SCC's utility ratemaking authority. In this episode, Brennan Gilmore, executive director of the advocacy group Clean Virginia, discusses this lost decade when Dominion obtained virtually everything it wanted in Richmond and overcollected in rates nearly $2 billion, and details the efforts of his group and a vast coalition of other interests in working to successfully pass  legislation restoring the SCC's authority to oversee Virginia Power's rates in the public interest.Gilmore, in a statement heralding passage of the legislative package, proclaimed: "For far too long Dominion Energy has wielded its political influence and contributions to write the rules of its own regulation. This year's legislative session has shown definitely that this era of self-regulation has come to an end.""We've been fighting for this and we've been fighting to minimize Dominion's political influence, and have been pushing back at them on the electoral playing field where the utility, I think, plays an outsized and inappropriate role, in hopes that we could get to a place where we would have good policy that protected consumers in Virginia," Gilmore tells EMP. "I've worked on this every day for the last four to five years. I didn't think it was going to happen this soon."Gilmore gives credit for the outcome to involvement by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who took an active role in the negotiations that produced the compromise legislative package, calling the Republican the first governor in years – whether Republican or Democrat – who has not been "asleep at the wheel" while Dominion obtained a succession of bills benefiting the utility's shareholders at the expense of the utility's electricity consumers.But he also gives credit to the changing face of the Virginia Legislature, which has seen an upswell in elected officials who disavow taking campaign contributions from utilities. Clean Virginia provided an important campaign finance alternative for politicians seeking office in Richmond. But Gilmore notes that his advocacy group was part of a huge coalition advocating for reform, including the Virginia Manufacturers Association, Google and Amazon, the Sierra Club and others. "It was basically any institution or organization or individual who pays an electric bill in the state was against that Dominion legislation," he says.Clean Virginia's efforts to restore the public interest in utility oversight doesn't stop with this initial victory, Gilmore says, noting the face of the Legislature is changing in Richmond, with redistricting prompting retirement of Dominion "stalwart allies" amid a dramatic upsurge in candidates who refuse to accept contributions from utilities. This makes him optimistic that future legislative triumphs will be in store for the Commonwealth's captive ratepayers. But until the day there is an "equitable campaign finance system," Gilmore says, Clean Virginia will continue to "fight fire with fire ... and put money on the table so that utilities aren't the only option to get into office."Support the show

Harry Godfrey of Advanced Energy United--and Pod Virginia's favorite energy guy--joins the show this week to break down the energy and utility regulation bills working their way through the General Assembly this session. The first: the Affordable Energy Act, which would restore utility oversight and regulation abilities to the State Corporation Commission. The second, and more controversial: the Phase II Energy Bill, which would allow utilities to add certain line-items to base rates, as well as other changes opposed by AEU.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

State lawmakers were already looking at a busy session when one member of the State Corporation Commission announced her resignation.  That will leave just one person on an essential regulatory board, and as Sandy Hausman reports, making new appointments through the legislature could be a challenge.

Dominion Energy applied under the State Corporation Commission last year. It's been a long process since then.

Regulators in Virginia are about to make an important determination about a potential new wind power operation off the coast of Virginia Beach. Michael Pope reports.

As Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project continues, negotiations with the SCC will help determine how much it will cost for Virginians to receive the newly-captured wind energy. Harry Godfrey (Managing Director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy) and Tim Cywinski (Communications Manager for the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club) join us to talk about the latest development in Dominion's negotiations with the State Corporation Commission: an SCC performance guarantee that the project will produce energy 42% of the time. What exactly does that mean, and how will the performance guarantee affect Virginia consumers? We go into the latest on this episode of Pod Virginia.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

IN THE NEWS:Attorney General Jason Miyares is creating a new election integrity unit he says will “restore confidence in our democratic process.” Democrats responded by asking--who doesn't have confidence in a system that just elected Republicans to all three statewide offices?Will Governor Youngkin appoint a new head POPE: Stalemate at the State Corporation Commission: Members of the General Assembly arrived at a stalemate for appointing a new member of the State Corporation Commission. which regulates public utilities, predatory lenders, insurance companies and even railroad safety. Now the question is whether the governor will try to appoint one because lawmakers have failed to take action, and that could come down to a question of how the General Assembly adjourned.Governor Glenn Youngkin was back on the campaign trail supporting former Maine Governor Paul LePage. He called LePage a "unifying force" while denouncing his racially inflammatory comments, including statements that suggest "the enemy" to be overwhelmingly "people of color or people or people of Hispanic origin."Former Delegate Mark Keam is no longer a member of the House of Delegates, and now voters in his district will have a special election to fill the seat. Voters the Democratic primary have to choose between School Board member Karl Fristch and BRAWS founder Holly Seibold. Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

Senior Fellow for State and Local Tax Policy at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy Stephen Haner is on with us to get into the realities of Virginia's agreement to invoke any climate policy California enacts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 10th annual Skyline Indie Film Festival kicks off in Winchester… Serious cases of COVID-19 peaked over the summer in Virginia, and now the new Omicron-fighting booster shots are available in the commonwealth… Virginia lawmakers elect a handful of local judges in a special one-day session, but they fail to agree on a replacement appointment for the powerful State Corporation Commission….

The State Corporation Commission gets Dominion to drop the Ralph Northam Memorial Off-shore wind farm because they'd have to charge the customers if it didn't work.... Steve Haner from the Thomas Jefferson Institute joins Joe to go over the (abundant) finer points.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

IN THE NEWS:In the wake of Supreme Court decisions revoking civil rights, Governor Glenn Youngkin claimed that Virginia law protects same-sex marriage--in truth, the state constitution has an anti-gay amendment passed in 2006.Also in the news: Census data shows that Fairfax County is the largest-growing county in the state over the last 50 years, while Norfolk has experienced the most population decline. Still, the prognosis for Northern Virginia's growth is grim, thanks to the cost of housing and the recent rise of telework. Also in the news: States across the country have begun exploring laws to restrict women from seeking out-of-state abortions. Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger has introduced federal legislation to prevent such laws, but faces Republican opposition.GUEST: Harry Godfrey of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy explains what's next for the offshore wind farm being built off the coast of Virginia Beach. Right now, the State Corporation Commission is deciding on a proposal from Dominion Energy--and the cost controls they'll impose on the project.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

There is a month and a week left until the summer solstice, and the time when the days begin growing shorter. Until then, there are now over 14 hours of sunlight in the section of the Earth on the day when the May 16 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is produced. That’s enough time to ensure that this newsletter and podcast at least tries to bring as much information as possible. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. On today’s program:Charlottesville Planning Commission recommends a seven-story building on Jefferson Park AvenueA fatal crash on U.S. 29 near Greenbrier Road has claimed the life of a Charlottesville manAn Augusta County elections official is the latest appointee to the State Board of ElectionsA quick update on COVID-19 from the UnivToday’s first shout-out goes to LEAPWe’re now well into spring, and many of us may have already turned on our air conditioning units for the first in months. To see what you can do to get the most out of your home, contact LEAP, your local energy nonprofit, to schedule a home energy assessment this month - just $45 for City and County residents. LEAP also offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!COVID cases still increasing; UVA Health urges renewed maskingAs the week begins, the Virginia Department of Health this morning reports a seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases at 2,750 a day and the seven-day percent positivity has increased to 14.6 percent. The actual amount of spread is likely higher due to the number of home tests that have become common as a first diagnosis for many people. “There are many people calling saying they’re COVID positive and importantly and interestingly, a fair number of those people have been vaccinated,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology for the University of Virginia Health System. With more cases in the community, UVA officials say its time to take precautions again.“Personally I’m masking back up and I think a lot of people are making the decision,” said Wendy Horton, the CEO of the UVA Health System. “It’s people that have been really careful, been vaccinated, and I think we’re just in this interesting time where we’re really tired of masking but I think it’s alive and well. We know it. We see it in our workforce. We see it in our patients.” The latest COVID model from the UVA Biocomplexity Institute was released on Friday. “Models forecast a significant surge of cases in the coming weeks,” reads the model. “Case rates are not expected to reach levels seen during the January wave. But they will likely exceed those seen in pre-Omicron waves.” Dr. Sifri said ebbs and flows are likely to continue as COVID-19 continues to transition from pandemic to endemic. He said the same public health advice exists. “In a period of time like now where we’re starting to see a surge in cases, this is the time to say okay, in this time and place right now, wearing a mask is helpful to prevent transmission,” Dr. Sifri said. “It’s also important because with COVID it still remains the case that probably half or more than half of cases are in people who are asymptomatic or have such mild symptoms that they don’t recognize that they’re sick.” This week the Virginia Department of Health is retiring several dashboards and ways of reporting COVID. People who seek to know cases by vaccination status will need to go to the Centers for Disease Control website. Cases and Deaths by Date Reported will also be phased out. The changes will take place on May 19. The VDH already has stopped reporting cases by locality on its website. Learn more about the changes on their website.Fatal crash on Seminole TrailAlbemarle County police are investigating the cause of a fatal crash last night in the 1200 block of U.S. 29 near Greenbrier Drive. Thirty-six-year old Justin Michael Tilghman of Charlottesville died at the scene of the crash which happened at 9:21 p.m. last night. The driver of a second vehicle was taken to the University of Virginia hospital. The Albemarle County Police Department’s Fatal Crash Reconstruction Team is leading the investigation. This is the fourth fatality on Albemarle County roads so far in 2022. Augusta County official named to State Board of ElectionsGovernor Glenn Youngkin has named a member of the Augusta County Board of Elections to serve on the Virginia State Board of Elections. Youngkin named Georgia K. Alvis-Long to the position. A press release identifies her occupation as a registered nurse instructor. Under Virginia law, the State Board of Elections is a five-member body that will have three members from the political party that won the Governor’s mansion in the last election. “Each political party entitled to an appointment may make and file recommendations with the Governor for the appointment,” reads Section 24.2-102 of Virginia Code.Alvis-Long fills a position left by the resignation of Jamilah D. LeCruise. For more recent appointments, take a look at the full release. Second shout-out: Charlottesville Jazz Society spotlighting benefit show for UkraineIn today’s second subscriber supported shout-out. The Charlottesville Jazz Society is spotlighting a benefit event to support the people of Ukraine at the Whiskey Jar this Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Young jazz students near the besieged city of Mariupol sent guitarist Royce Campbell a plea to help, and several area musicians have jumped into help. Vocalist Monica Worth has organized the event, and Campbell will play for Ukraine with bassist Andre La Vell and drummer Jim Howe. Many of Charlottesville’s best jazz musicians will sit in. Donations will be collected and sent to Global Giving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, and you can also go ahead and support this effort with a payment online. That’s We Play for Ukraine at the Whiskey Jar this Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Divided Planning Commission approves seven-story building on Jefferson Park Avenue A divided Charlottesville Planning Commission voted 4-3 on May 10 to recommend that City Council approve a special use permit for additional height and density for a seven-story U-shaped building at 2005 Jefferson Park Avenue.  They’ve also recommended reducing parking requirements by 22 percent over what would otherwise be required.“The [special use permit] is required to accommodate a development being proposed for 119-units of multifamily dwellings within one building with underground parking,” said city planner Matt Alfele. This project was filed after the city adopted a new Comprehensive Plan and Future Land Use Map created as part of the Charlottesville Plans Together initiative, which is still underway. There are currently 17 units across multiple structures across the property. “The Future Plan Use Map, the Comprehensive Plan that we went through, is increasing density and increasing density in certain areas of the city, and this area of the city is one that is looking to increase density and to increase density at especially this scale is going to create a big building,” Alfele said. The developer would pay $500,000 into the city’s affordable housing fund rather than provide required affordable units on-site or at another location nearby. They’ll build 125 parking spaces in an underground garage with access on Washington Avenue. Residents would not be eligible to park on that street or Observatory due to restricted parking. The building would be seven stories taller from JPA and would be five stories tall at the back. “The biggest concern I think staff had was the rear elevation, the five story building going down into the mainly single-family, two-family neighborhood,” Allele said. This request comes after City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Plan with a Future Land Use Map that encourages more residential density, but before the new zoning rules have been written. “Do you happen to know and can you remind me what in our Future Land Use map, what this area is designated as, and what the by-right height would be in that corridor?” asked City Councilor Michael Payne. “This is Urban Mixed Use Corridor and the height is five stories or up to eight at key intersections,” Alfele said. “This is one of the areas where our Comprehensive Plan land use conflicts with our current zoning because our Comprehensive land use map is anticipating our zoning changing. The Future Land Use Map measures in stories and not feet.” Under the existing zoning, the structure could be 35 feet tall without a permit. This is one of the areas that will be clarified in the zoning rewrite. The term “key intersection” is also currently not defined. Payne pointed out the Comprehensive Plan seeks to encourage more units that would be rented to people below market. “The framework that we’ve adopted for that is that if we’re going above the by-right height, the reason we’re doing that is to have an inclusionary zoning program that’s going to required affordable housing as part of that,” Payne said. Payne also suggested $500,000 as an affordable housing contribution would not go far. “I know it’s their choice and we don’t have any control over it but I would just note for the record that we got an affordable housing report that included data on the total subsidy needed to construct a new affordable unit, and I can’t remember the exact number but I know in Virginia that total subsidy to build one new unit could be around $300,000,” Payne said. Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook noted that there had been a lot of concerns during the Future Land Use Map from other neighborhoods such as North Downtown, but he had not heard much from the JPA neighborhood at that time.“The one area where it seemed clear that everyone was willing to agree we should have increased density was along JPA yet there was no basically no public discussion of that fact,” Snook said. Until the rezoning is finalized, individual applications like this are the forum for how the city will look in the future. The project will need a certificate of appropriateness from the Entrance Corridor Review Board, which is also the Planning Commission. They’ll get to influence the design. The developer said the area was already predominantly occupied by renters, and that this level of density is served by transit. “We are one block away in each direction from the trolley stops,” said Erin Hannegan with Mitchell + Matthews Architects and Planners. Hannegan acknowledged the Future Land Use Map designation of Urban Mixed Use Corridor and said this project meets the goals of the Comprehensive Plan.“The further definition is ‘higher intensity mixed-use development’ for this area and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do,” Hannegan said. “A higher intensity development. Mixed use is not allowed under the R-3 mixed-use currently designated.” Hannegan acknowledged that the new building would be out of scale with what is currently there, but anticipated the future conditions of JPA.“This building might be taller than its current neighbors but it won’t be out of character with the future implementation of the Comprehensive Plan and the implementation of the vision that’s been in the works for over 20 years for this particular neighborhood,” Hannegan said. At the public hearing, Nina Barnes of the Jefferson Park Avenue Neighborhood Association said the Comprehensive Plan compels Council and the Planning Commission to take adverse effects into account when considering a special use permit. “Adverse impacts may include traffic or parking congestion, undue density and population, and massing and scale,” Barnes said. “This project has adverse effects in all of these ways.”Barnes said the seven-story building would block the sun from existing one and two story buildings.Ellen Contini-Morava said the staff reports seemed to be in favor of the developer, and noted the gap between an adopted Comprehensive Plan and older zoning. She said this undermines the spirit of the Cville Plans Together Initiative. “This application treats the rezoning that’s proposed in the Future Land Use Map as if it were already in place,” Contini-Morava said. “This application not only aims to short-circuit the rezoning process but even requests a height that is two stories higher than the five stories suggested in the Future Land Use Map for the JPA corridor.” Fifeville resident Matthew Gillikin spoke for the group Livable Cville, which is not a registered entity with the State Corporation Commission but is active in promoting higher density in the community. Gillikin said the answer to affordability in Charlottesville is more housing. “And the developer is planning to contribute nearly $500,000 to the Charlottesville affordable housing fund as a condition to build,” Gillikin said. “This will fund groups like [Charlottesvile Redevelopment and Housing Authority], LEAP, [Albemarle Housing Improvement Program], [Piedmont Housing Alliance], and Habitat for Humanity in the work to address local housing issues.” Gillikin said approval of this project would prevent students from moving into local neighborhoods such as Tenth and Page and Fifeville. These units would have no affordability provisions. For comparisons let’s look at the Standard, another building designed by Mitchell + Matthews Architects. According to their website, the lowest rent for a room in a four-bedroom unit goes for $1,029 a month. Double occupancy in a single bedroom in a three bedroom unit can go for $845 a month. One and two bedroom units in the Standard are sold out. Pricing is not available online for the Flats at West Village. The Lark on Main has a one bedroom unit with a study for $1,879 a month. A room in a four bedroom, four bathroom costs $955 a month. Garage parking is an extra $100. Commission discussionAfter the public hearing, Commissioner Hosea Mitchell said he supported the project, but did want the massing to be a little more consistent with the rest of the neighborhoods. “We do need more housing in Charlottesville and we do a bit of relief valve,” Mitchell said. “We need housing in Charlottesville that is closer to UVA so that the housing that is further away from UVA can be used by the rest of our citizenry,” Mitchell said. Commissioner Taneia Dowell said if the developer is going to additional density based on the future zoning for the property, the spirit of the Affordable Housing Plan must also be honored. “That’s where I’m really having some heartburn,” Dowell said. “If we’re going to go off future endeavors for this project and this special use permit, then we need to go off future endeavors for everything related to this.” Commissioner Jody Lahendro said he could not support this level of density in the area and especially with a building with that much massing. He said the Comprehensive Plan also calls for development on Entrance Corridors to be compatible with existing neighborhoods. “I am not in favor of sacrificing a long term neighborhood for providing student housing for the University,” Lahendro said. “I think the people who have lived here and the single-family homes in this neighborhood deserve… we can’t just pretend that they’re not there.” Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg said he was reviewing the permit request under existing rules and not looking ahead to the new zoning. Quoting the standards of review, he noted that the Commission must review whether a proposal would be “harmonious with existing patterns of use and development in the neighborhood.”“But it will shock you guys to learn that harmonious is not actually defined in the code so the question I think before us is whether a five-story building can co-exist near or next to even smaller buildings including detached houses,” Stolzenberg said. “I’d note there’s already a four and a half story building at the head of the street.” Bill Palmer is with the Office of the Architect at the University of Virginia and sits as a non-voting member of the Planning Commission. He said UVA is not in an era where they are being required by the Commonwealth of Virginia to increase enrollment. According to the UVA office of Institutional Research and Analytics, there was an on-Grounds enrollment in Fall 2021 of 16,793 undergraduates and 6,928 graduate students. (enrollment data)“If you look at our official projects, they are flat,” Palmer said. Palmer said UVA is building additional housing on Grounds, including a second new structure in the Brandon Avenue Corridor. He also said the UVA initiative to build up to 1,500 new affordable units in the community includes a site further down from 2005 JPA in Albemarle County at the Piedmont housing site. “In terms of having affordable housing close in the future, that will be a place where the University is trying to provide something,” Palmer said. Council thoughtsCouncil will have the final decision, but did not vote during what is their first reading.Councilor Payne said he was frustrated that the affordability rules of the future are not yet in place. “This happened with another [special use permit] a few weeks ago where we’re in this strange situation where we’re sort of evaluating the Future Land Use Map and zoning map rewrite in mind, but if we’re using that in our evaluation, that will include our framework of inclusionary zoning and affordable housing overlays which are critical to the success of that plan for affordable housing,” Payne said. Councilor Brian Pinkston said he is learning toward support because it did provide more housing close to the University of Virginia. “I’m not able to fully articulate how we square that with point number one which is whether it is harmonious,” Pinkston said. “To some degree I think harmoniousness might be in the eye of the beholder. I will say that in terms of how the design was laid out and that you have seven stories in the front and five stories in the back, I thought there was some care and attention to trying to integrate into the neighborhood.” Snook also said he had issues with the word “harmonious” and said the traditional form of land use control known as “Euclidean zoning” is not good at dealing with change. “It doesn’t allow for us to grow gradually from a little bit of density to a little bit more density,” Snook said. “It allows us to say okay, we’re going to rezone the entire block of the entire neighborhood but it doesn’t let us go bit by bit.” As the Entrance Corridor Review Board, the Planning Commission voted unanimously on a motion to acknowledge there would be an adverse impact, but those impacts can be mitigated through the design process. As the Planning Commission, they consider a motion made by Stolzenberg to recommend approval. The was 4-3 with Stolzenberg, Mitchell, Habbab, and Commission Chair Lyle Solla-Yates voting in favor. Lahendro joined Dowell and Commissioner Liz Russell in voting no.  Help Ting help support Town Crier productions!For one year now, Town Crier Productions has had a promotional offering through Ting!Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Dominion Energy defended it's deceptive report to the State Corporation Commission regarding it's massive off shore wind farm by pointing out the the law allows them to do that! Joe checks in with the best resource on this story, Stephen Haner, Senior Fellow for State and Local Tax Policy, Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s shaking? Sounds like an appropriate greeting for Richter Scale Day. Have yourself tied in knots? An appropriate pose for National Pretzel Day. I know I am able to tell you this is the 369th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a clear sign of how I honor Get Organized Day. I’m Sean Tubbs, the host of this regular newsletter and podcast about things both trivial and of massive importance. Help spread the word by sharing this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement!In today’s edition: The Virginia Solar Initiative has the first ever survey of how localities in the Commonwealth regulate solar installations large and small The Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee in Albemarle will not be reappointed anytime soonCharlottesville City Council ratifies the issuance of $23 million in revenue bonds for Midway ManorAnd the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors get an update on Southwood in advance of a public hearing tonight for a rezoning for the second phase Shout-out to Camp AlbemarleToday’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting campalbemarleva.org/donate. Survey released on solar rules across Virginia localitiesIn six years, the amount of electricity generated by solar panels in increased by 12,150 percent. That’s according to data cited in the first ever survey of Virginia localities on their policies related to permitting large utility-scale installations as well as rooftop panels. The survey was conducted by the Virginia Department of Energy and the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia and asked a series of questions to officials in Virginia’s 133 localities. “In Virginia, the permitting and siting of solar energy and energy storage facilities is heavily informed by local governments,” reads the report. “Therefore, to realize the full potential of solar energy development in Virginia, it is important to understand and support the solar experience, concerns and priorities of local governments.”One hundred and nine localities responded to the survey, which was conducted a year after the General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act which among other things mandates that Virginia’s largest two investor-owned utilities be 100 percent carbon free by 2050. “The VCEA also deems 16,100 megawatts (MW) of solar and onshore wind to be in the public interest, greatly reducing the barriers for project approval with the State Corporation Commission,” the report continues.The survey is intended to help inform policy across Virginia, given that localities set the detailed rules for siting and zoning of solar facilities. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity generated through solar in Virginia increased from 30 megawatts in 2015 to 3,675 megawatts in 2021.Smaller installations on homes and businesses are called “distributed” solar projects. That number has risen from 948 net-metering installations in 2011 to 26,237 in 2021. No plans to reappoint VORCAC There are eight vacancies on the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors has no intention of filling them any time soon. That’s according to Emily Kilroy, the county’s director of communications and public engagement. “The Board will not seek to make reappointments at this time, as Committee support right now is in a transition,” Kilroy wrote in an email to Charlottesville Community Engagement on Monday. The previous appointees resigned en masse in April after their April 11 meeting was canceled by the county for a lack of pressing issues. Committee members disagreed and announced their resignation in an April 19 Substack post. Albemarle County is currently reviewing the Comprehensive Plan, of which the Village of Rivanna Master Plan is a component. As part of that work, staff resources in the Community Development Department are not as available. “Recently, the Community Development Department’s long range planning staff have traditionally managed all CAC meetings and scheduling,” wrote Charles Rapp, the deputy director of community development, in a March 1 email. “To transition the primary focus to the comprehensive plan, staff is proposing a structured schedule for the CACs for the remainder of the 2022 calendar year.”That did not meet the favor of the former members of the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee. Today, the Free Enterprise Forum is calling for the county to disband all of the Community Advisory Committees.To learn more about the Comprehensive Plan project underway, visit the AC44 pages on the Albemarle County website. This is not to be confused with the Air Canada flight between Vancouver and Dublin. What do you think? Leave a comment!City Council signs off on bonds for Midway ManorAt their meeting on April 18, City Council agreed with the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s decision to issue $23 million in bonds for a third-party to refurbish the Midway Manor housing complex in downtown Charlottesville.“It is assistance with the financing for the substantial rehabilitation of Midway Manor Apartments by Standard Communities,” said Michael Graff, a bond counsel with McGuire Woods. The funding will flow through the CRHA as a conduit for tax-exempt bonds, which requires the city to also issue its approval. “At a high level we will be ensuring that this property continues to provide affordable housing for at least the next 30 years through partnership with Virginia Housing and an allocation of Low Income Housing Tax Credits as well as renewing the subsidy contract that provides the current residents with a rental subsidy that is set to expire in two years,” said Steven Kahn of Standard Communities.Kahn said Standard is working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to extend that contract for 20 years. He said that’s the maximum length HUD will allow. He also said there will be a substantial renovation of the units. “Sixty-plus thousand dollars per unit,” Kahn said. “Very little will be untouched. The things you typically think of for renovations is kitchens, bathroom, flooring, and electrical systems, absolutely. But also some of the behind the scene elements that can also plague older buildings if they are not invested in. Façade, windows, roofing.”Paragraph below updated on April 27, 2022Kahn said work on the elevator systems is currently underway.  More details was provided in a statement sent to Charlottesville Community Engagement on April 27.“We continue to plan for a comprehensive renovation and upgrade of Midway Manor, which is expected to begin later this year in conjunction with the implementation of extended affordability protections for the property. Recognizing that the elevators were in need of more immediate attention, we have accelerated the modernization of both elevators at the property, with on-site work currently underway. In efforts to minimize disruption to residents, one elevator car is being worked on at a time, with the entire project expected to be complete within the next 8 weeks.” - Steven Kahn, Director, Standard CommunitiesCouncilor Michael Payne also sits as a voting member of the CRHA Board. He voted to approve the bonds on February 28, but said he would vote on Council with “unease.” “There’s not a way for City Council to have baked in our approval a lock-step assurance for example when and if the elevator get renovated, how is this process going to go, so I will certainly be trying to watch it as closely as I can and be talking to residents throughout this process,” Payne said. Midway Manor sits on 2.32 acres and was built in 1981 according to city property records. Standard Communities paid $16.5 million for the property on January, 13, 2022. Today’s second shout-out goes to LEAPWe’re now well into spring, and many of us may have already turned on our air conditioning units for the first in months. To see what you can do to get the most out of your home, contact LEAP, your local energy nonprofit, to schedule a home energy assessment this month - just $45 for City and County residents. LEAP also offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Albemarle Supervisors briefed on Southwood RedevelopmentTonight the Albemarle Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the rezoning of the second phase of the Southwood Mobile Home Park being overseen by a local nonprofit. (meeting info)Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville purchased Southwood in 2007 and entered into an agreement with the Board of Supervisors in 2016 to work with the nonprofit. A performance agreement for a public private partnership was signed in 2019 to govern $3.25 million in county investment. Supervisors got an update at their meeting on April 20, 2022. “That was shortly followed by approval of the phase one rezoning application and just to let you know, the rezoning application for phase two was submitted to the county in 2021,” Pethia said. Phase one is for 34 acres on the eastern and southern edges of the property, with a maximum of 450 homes, 270 units of which will be made affordable to residents through various interventions. There’s also a maximum of 50,000 square feet of non-residential space. Before describing phase two, Pethia gave an update on how the site plan for phase one has turned out. “The approved site plan will provide a total of 335 residential units, 211 of those are affordable,” Pethia said. “The affordable housing units include approximately 121 low-income housing tax credit units which will be located along Hickory Drive, 86 Habitat built units to be located in villages one and two as well as in block ten. Habitat units include condominiums, townhomes, and single family attached and detached units.”Pethia said Habitat has currently identified 37 Southwood households who are ready to move forward with purchasing their homes in phase one. Phase 2 extends the rezoning to the existing mobile home park. “If approved, phase two will approve 527 to 1,000 housing units, 227 of which will be affordable, including a potential sixty additional Low Income Housing Tax Credit units,” Pethia said. Phase 2 would allow for a maximum of 60,000 square feet of nonresidential space. The Planning Commission will review this rezoning tonight.Funding overviewIn addition to $3.25 million associated with the performance agreement, Albemarle has used $675,000 from the housing trust to help pay for costs associated with the first phase of the rezoning as well as the equivalent of $175,000 in county staff time. “Additionally, the county applied for and was awarded a little over $2.4 million in grant funding including a $40,000 Community Development Block Grant,” Pethia said. Pethia said Habitat estimates the total cost to develop Southwood will be $154.7 million, including the cost to prepare the sites and to engage with residents. “Habitat anticipates securing $131.1 million to cover the project costs,” Pethia said. “This amount includes funds that have already been received and that will be expended by the end of this fiscal year. The balance of total project funds include donations received through Habitat’s capital campaign, revenue generated through mobile home park operations, proceeds from the sale of land for market-rate housing, and funds Habitat anticipates receiving through federal and state grants, local government, and foundations.” Pethia said there’s a current $16.6 million revenue gap and county staff are looking to close it. Many sources will include a local match from Albemarle taxpayers. Another option would be increased funding from the housing trust or development of a new public private partnership. In March, MacKenzie Scott gave Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville $5.75 million. Habitat CEO Dan Rosensweig said the deficit already includes that spending. (Daily Progress story)“It’s a blessing and a curse because it’s already baked into this,” Rosensweig said. Another expense has been and will be removal of oil tanks under trailers as well as failing septic systems. “There were two areas of the mobile home park that are on failing septic right now and there is one area of the park that was draining directly into the part of the park that we are trying to develop and that was obviously a catastrophe,” Rosensweig said. “One of the things that we’ve had to do earlier than we thought was scramble to create trailer pads on the other side of the park that’s on [public] sewer. We’ve been moving people. Some folks moved out over the years and we purchased mobile homes and rehabbed them. So the first 80 or so families, we’re about halfway through moving them out of the park so we can decommission all of that septic.” Rosensweig said another 170 trailers are on failing septic and it is directly pouring into Biscuit Run and into the watershed. They’re applying for funding to install a sewer line into the park, but that cost is $6.5 million and the county will be asked to cover some of the cost. “It would also be infrastructure that we’re designing to be part of the second phase so it would be infrastructure that’s not temporary infrastructure, but permanent infrastructure,” Rosensweig said. The Planning Commission takes up the second phase of the rezoning tonight. Support Town Crier Productions through Ting!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Is there anything terrifying about Wednesday the 13th, or is this a day reserved to be wacky? Either way we are now 103 days into the year, which may be startling for some. Some might be surprised to learn this is the 363rd installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. No one should be shocked that I am the host, Sean Tubbs. On today’s show:Charlottesville City Council adopts a budget for FY23 including a the first increase in the real estate tax in in 41 yearsThe Charlottesville Dogwood Festival returns this week in a new locationAn update on the city’s zoning rewriteGovernor Youngkin vetoes two dozen General Assembly bills and recommends changes to dozens more Today’s first shout-out goes to WTJUAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU and get read for the Rock Marathon beginning next Monday! Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.City Council adopts FY23 budget, raises real estate tax rate by a pennyIn a brief meeting last night, Charlottesville City Council adopted a nearly $212.9 million budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. However, a penny increase in the real estate tax rate goes into effect for the calendar year, which will be included in the tax bills that will soon be sent to property owners. That’s the first increase in the tax rate several decades.“It’s been a long budget season,” said interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers. “We’ve listened as staff to your various proposals and desires to address issues in our community.” The final shape of the budget was formed at a work session on April 7 at which Councilors agreed to the real estate tax increase and to keep the personal property tax to $4.20 per $100 of assessed value. Second reading of a vote to increase the meals tax to 6.5 percent will be held on April 18.  (read the staff report)Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook is the only opponent of the increase to $0.96 cents per $100 of assessed value, but he did vote in the affirmative.“I will note that I disagree with the levy and raising of the real estate tax by one cents but given the fact that we just passed a budget that has to be funded, I will be voting yes,” Snook said. That additional penny will raise $925,000, all of which will go to pay for future debt service related to the renovation of Buford Middle School as well as school reconfiguration. The group Charlottesville United for Public Education released a statement thanking the Council, but signaled they will continue to push for more. “While we thank City Council for making a strong commitment to our schools in their budget vote last night, we also call on them to continue to make investments in public education a top priority going forward,” reads a statement. The first half of the tax bills are due on June 5. The last time City Council increased the tax rate was in 1981 when Council voted to increase the rate from $1.10 to $1.13 per $100 of assessed value. City Council to return to in-person meetings next MondayCharlottesville City Council will follow the lead of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and return to in-person meetings beginning this upcoming Monday. While there will be opportunities for the public to attend the 6:30 p.m. regular session, only Councilors will attend the 4 p.m. work session. Both sessions will be live-streamed. At the regular session, 23 members of the public and two members of the media will be able to attend in City Council Chambers. All formal presentations will be delivered remotely. Charlottesville is still under an emergency ordinance and today’s news release states that this system will remain in place for the duration. “At this time, this is the only meeting permitted to resume in-person, but discussions are underway regarding other meetings resuming in CitySpace,” reads the release.Today the Virginia Department of Health reports another 1,115 cases and the percent positivity is at 6.9 percent. Planning Commission updated on zoning code rewriteCharlottesville planning staff and consultants hired to run the Cville Plans Together initiative are slightly behind in their work to create a diagnostic and approach report for the rewriting of the city zoning code. That’s what Neighborhood Development Services Director James Freas told the Planning Commission last night. “By the next meeting, we’ll probably have released this next report,” Freas said. “In fact, we definitely will have. But before then we’ll have shared with you guys what we anticipate the schedule looking like going forward.” City Council adopted an Affordable Housing Plan last March and a new Comprehensive Plan in mid-November. Freas said the goal is to have the new zoning code adopted around this time next year. “Hopefully by March of next year we’ll have fully adopted it,” Freas said. “That’s what we’ve been aiming for and I don’t see any reason to push that back.” For more on the zoning process, visit cvilleplanstogether.com. Dogwood Festival returns with new location of carnivalAfter a two year break due to the pandemic, a major highlight of the annual Dogwood Festival returns tomorrow. However, the carnival will be held in a different location this year. Charlottesville Planning Commissioner Hosea Mitchell informed his colleagues on Tuesday night.“It used to be at McIntire Park and now it’s going to be in the K-Mart parking lot,” Mitchell said. The Dogwood Festival began in 1950 as the Apple Harvest Festival before getting its longterm name in 1958. As part of the festivities, there will be a rededication ceremony for the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial beginning on April 22. The 73rd Dogwood Grand Parade will be held on April 23 in downtown Charlottesville. For more information, visit cvilledogwood.com. Today’s second shout-out goes to LEAPWe’re now well into spring, and soon many of us will turn our air conditioning units for the first i months. To see what you can do to get the most out of your home, contact LEAP, your local energy nonprofit, to schedule a home energy assessment this month - just $45 for City and County residents. LEAP also offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Governor Youngkin takes action on legislation, vetoes over two dozen billsThe Virginia General Assembly is next scheduled to meet on April 27 to respond to actions taken by Governor Glenn Youngkin this week on bills that passed both the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democratic-controlled Senate earlier this year.  On Monday, Youngkin took action on several bills that passed this past winter. Youngkin signed over 700 bills, made recommendations on over 100, and vetoed two dozen that had passed both the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. The General Assembly can override the vetoes with a two-thirds majority and will consider whether to accept the amendments. (check out the Virginia Constitution for the details)Vetoed bills include: (full list)SB347 would have required the State Corporation Commission to establish annual energy efficiency savings targets for low-income, elderly, disabled, or veterans of military service.  Youngkin said the SCC’s definition of “public interest” should not be expanded by the legislature and could lead to higher energy costs. HB802 would have expanded the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act to give localities the power to take action against landlords who allow their units to become fire and safety hazards. In his explanation, Youngkin claimed this would duplicate existing provisions available under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code. HB675 would have eliminated the ability of health insurance carriers to levy a surcharge to tobacco users.HB1298 would have prohibited high school student-athletes from being compensated for their likeness, name, or image. Youngkin said “the bill is a premature prohibition that fails to recognize the continually evolving marketplace for content creation and monetization and could have the unintended consequence of limiting young people from engaging in economic activity via social media unrelated to their athletic performance.” SB250 would have increased annual fees for nonhazardous solid waste management facilities. Youngkin said this would “[increase] the cost of doing business in Virginia with pass-through costs to consumers.”SB297 would have made it a violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act for a health care provider to seek debt collection prematurely. Youngkin said this would create “unintended consequences that could harm small healthcare providers by "creating additional legal liability.”SB706 would have prohibited operators of heavy trucks from using cruise control and certain types of breaks during winter storms. Youngkin said “this bill would impose burdens on Virginia’s trucking industry, as well as interstate transportation, without any demonstrable public safety or transportation benefit.” Asd for the amendments, there are several worth noting.Youngkin put a sunset clause of July 1, 2024 on a provision of the Transit Ridership Incentive Program that would have required a quarter of the program’s  funds be spent on programs to reduce fares. (HB142)Youngkin wants to extend the date by which hotels must ensure their employees are trained to report human trafficking from July 1 of this year to January 1, 2023. (HB258)HB891 would have removed the word “alien” from Virginia code as it refers to non-citizens. Youngkin amended the bill to require a work group be set up to study the issue. SB24 would have extended the sunset date of Virginia’s Eviction Diversion Pilot Program, but Youngkin’s amendment would require the General Assembly to vote on this again in 2023. Support Town Crier Productions through Ting!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Another Friday has arrived, and somehow this is the 14th such day of 2022. Is this year going faster than the others, and if so, is there a way this can be stopped? These are not questions within the scope of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that seeks to put some of the pieces together. I’m your ever-puzzling host, Sean Tubbs. Sign up today to receive every newsletter in your email inbox - for free! On today’s program:Albemarle Supervisors return to in-person meetings and commemorate Fair Housing MonthBoth the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and the City of Charlottesville award funding to housing projects in the areaCharlottesville may change the way to administers transportation projectsGovernor Youngkin rescinds an executive order that banned state agencies from using single-use plastic Bacteria levels in a Charlottesville waterway are back to normalAnd the city of Charlottesville will resume disconnecting utility customers for unpaid balances First subscriber-supported public service announcement - MLKCVILLECharlottesville’s Community Celebration of the life, times, and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. continues on April 10 with  keynote speeches from the Rev. Brenda Brown-Grooms, the Rev. Alvin Edwards, and Rabbi Tom Gutherz. All three will appear the event at the Ting Pavilion on the east end of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall beginning at 3 p.m. Rev. Brown-Grooms is co-pastor of New Beginnings Christian Community; Rev. Edwards serves Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, and Rabbi Gutherz, Congregation Beth Israel.The Community Celebration is put on each year by the Mount Zion First African Baptist Church. Visit and bookmark the YouTube MLKCVille page to review part one of the celebration as well as previous events. Albemarle Supervisors return to in-person meetingsAfter 25 months, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors have held a meeting in Lane Auditorium, where they have met since the county acquired the former Lane High School for an administration building back in the late 70’s. Members of the public were there, too, and Rivanna Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley noted the occasion. “I just wanted to welcome everybody who came today and it’s wonderful to be back in person and to see so many people and all of us to be together,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. The sentiment was shared by Scottsville Supervisor and Chair Donna Price.“It is wonderful to be back live, in-person, in Lane Auditorium, and we expect that we will continue to see more people show up for our meetings,” Price said. “But the silver lining that’s come out of the pandemic in terms of our situation is that we now have this hybrid opportunity so those are not able to come to Lane Auditorium can still participate virtually.” Albemarle Supervisors then made a proclamation to recognize April as Fair Housing Month. Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District read from the proclamation, which marks the 54th anniversary of the passage of Title ViII of the Civil Rights Act. “This act provides for equal housing opportunities for all Americans, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability, as well as to ensure fair practice in the sale, rental, or financing of property,” Gallaway said. The proclamation states it is the intention of Albemarle Supervisors to recognize the importance of housing rights. They heard from Stacy Pethia, the county’s housing coordinator. “I can’t say enough about how important it is to be able to provide housing choice to all of our residents because where we live really does matter,” Pethia said. “It determines the quality of education we will have, the quality and types of employment opportunities that we can access, what amenities we have available to us. Fair housing is really the basis of success throughout everyone’s lives.” Pethia said Albemarle is celebrating Fair Housing Month with an art contest. Visit the county’s website at engage.albemarle.org to learn more and to submit your work. TJPDC funds three affordable housing projects; Charlottesville funds fiveThe Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has awarded $1.8 million in funds to regional housing nonprofits and entities. The funding comes from a $2 million grant to the TJPDC from the entity formerly known as the Virginia Housing Development Authority for the purpose of constructing or preserving affordable housing. “By virtue of us receiving $2 million, we are obligated to construct at least 20 new affordable housing units,” said Ian Baxter, a planner with the TJPDC. The TJPDC received five proposals totalling $6 million in requests. Baxter said these were measured by a series of metrics. “Cost per unit, location of development, type of development, affordability level, site control, funding sources, and the capacity to be completed by June 2024,” Baxter said. The funding will be split among three providers.$640,000 for three Habitat for Humanity chapters for 32 new units to be build throughout the TJPDC region$660,000 to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for 48 units at the second phase of the South First Street redevelopment$500,000 for Virginia Supportive Housing for 80 new permanent supportive housing as part of the Premier Circle project“This $1.8 million will fund developments in all of the six jurisdictions in the planning district,” Baxter said. “It will create a mix of rental, supportive housing, and new homeowner units, all affordable.”This is the first time the TJPDC has received funds from Virginia Housing for this purpose. Executive Director Christine Jacobs said she is hopeful that there will be another round in the future. Council makes CAHF awards, repurposes the HACOn Monday, the city of Charlottesville awarded $750,000 in funds from the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund. Alex Ikefuna is the interim director of the Office of Community Solutions, a relatively new division of city government set up to oversee housing issues.“Staff received seven applications totaling $4,6 million,” Ikefuna said.They are:$425,000 to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for South Street Phase 2$75,000 for down payment assistance for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville’s Equity Homeownership Initiative $100,000 for Albemarle Housing Improvement Program’s Charlottesville Critical Repair Program $50,000 for the Local Energy Alliance Program’s Assisted Home Performance and Electrification Ready (AHP) targeted to owner occupied homes.$100,000 for LEAP’s AHP for renter occupied homesCouncil also agreed to amend the by-laws for the Housing Advisory Committee to reduce membership and to transfer review of city housing funds to a dedicated Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund Committee. Three Councilors indicated they wanted to make sure a representative from the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority is on the amended Housing Advisory Committee. “In my view, the bottom line is just to try to have a body that is more effective in giving City Council guidance about how to implement our affordable housing strategy and meet our affordable housing goals and these are just changes meant to have it be a more effective and efficient body in doing that for us,” said City Councilor Michael Payne, who is also on the CRHA’s Board of Commissioners. Charlottesville to resume utility disconnections for non-paymentIn another sign that the pandemic has receded, the city of Charlottesville has announced they will resume disconnecting water, sewer, and natural gas service for non-payment beginning next week. “Green door hangers will be distributed to addresses that owe balances, encouraging customers to set up payment arrangements,” reads the announcement sent out by the city yesterday. The city’s utility billing office stopped disconnecting service for unpaid bills in March 2020 soon after the state of emergency was declared, followed by a moratorium imposed by the State Corporation Commission. That was lifted in last September. According to the release, the utility billing office continued to tell customers with unpaid balances how much they owed. The city covered the cost of $557,000 through various federal assistance programs related to the pandemic. Governor Youngkin overturns previous administration’s order to ban single-use plastic In March 2021, former Governor Ralph Northam signed an executive order banning state agencies from buying, selling, or distributing single-use plastics. His successor, Governor Glenn Youngkin, has called that directive “burdensome” and yesterday replaced it with a new one that directs state agencies to recognize the value of recycling. "It is the policy of the Commonwealth, and all executive branch state agencies, including state institutions of higher education, and their concessioners (Agency or Agencies) to increase awareness of the importance of recycling and better capture recyclable material, as well as encourage the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) products and biodegradable materials,” reads Executive Order 17.The order also takes an economic development approach and directs the Department of Environmental Quality to attract recycling-related businesses to Virginia.The University of Virginia formed a working group last April to begin to implement the Northam administration’s order. Last month, the UVA Sustainability Office accepted the 2022 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Gold Award for its efforts, according to an article on their website. “The University of Virginia is taking active measures to enhance sustainability and reduce waste, pursuant with the directives detailed in Governor Youngkin's Executive Order 17 and in former governor Ralph Northam's Executive Order 77,” said Deputy UVA Spokesperson Bethanie Glover in an email to Charlottesville Community Engagement this afternoon. Glover said sustainability leaders at UVA will be evaluating the new executive order to determine what additional steps need to be taken.  Need trees? Charlottesville Area Tree Steward sale is this Saturday! In today’s first Patreon-fueled public service announcement, the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards are preparing to hold their first in-person tree sale since 2019. On April 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards will open up their tree nursery at the Fontaine Research Park and will sell saplings of native trees, some of which are hard to find from commercial sources. The prices will be between $5 and $15. There will be large trees from Birch to Sycamore, smaller trees from Blackgum to Witch Hazel, and shrubbery! Visit charlottesvilletreestewards.org to learn more!Albemarle and Greene both receive regional support for Three Notch’d Trail planning grantThe members of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission have indicated support for two separate planning efforts for more pathways in the region. Both Albemarle County and Greene County are seeking federal funds to build new infrastructure. “The grant would fund a shared bike pedestrian path from the city of Charlottesville to Crozet likely along U.S. 250,” said Jessica Hersh-Ballering, a transportation planner with Albemarle County. “From there it would continue west all the way to the Blue Ridge Tunnel in Nelson County.” “In Greene, because we are a more rural community, there are no walking paths even in our growth area,” said Jim Frydl, the Greene County Planning Director. “If you live in the housing that’s in the growth area, there’s no safe way to walk to the shopping and the work centers.”A federal infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. Congress last year has increased funding for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program, which goes by the acronym RAISE. Albemarle is requesting between $1.5 million and $3 million for the planning effort. The idea would be to build something that works as both a functional transportation use as well as a recreational destination that could attract tourism as is the case with the Virginia Capital Trail. “This is a range that we are requesting because we are still working through our budget for this project with some local consultants,” Hersh-Ballering said. “We will have a number somewhere in this range finalized by the time we submit our application next week.” If funded, the project would first conduct a feasibility study, particularly to identify a route between Crozet and the Blue Ridge Tunnel. “It could go directly through Crozet, it could go a little south of Crozet and go near more schools, or it could follow potentially the CSX railroad line to have a very gentle grade for the entirety of that section,” Hersh-Ballering said. The funding would also include public outreach as well as “functional design” for the trail that would fall short of environmental review required for the project to go to construction. “So the idea is that it would be really expensive to construct the project all at once so what we’re probably going to do is identify those pieces that can stand-alone and then use some of our more common, smaller funding sources to fund construction separately,” Hersh-Ballering said. The entire route would span between 25 to 30 miles and would connect three localities. The TJPDC agreed to send a letter of support without comment. Greene County is seeking a $1.4 million RAISE grant to plan for a trail between the South River Falls in the northwest of the county to the town of Stanardsville, A second pathway would follow along U.S. 33 to connect to the unincorporated area of Ruckersville. “And then interconnectivity pathways in Ruckersville that connect the two nodes of the Ruckersville growth area,” Frydl said. Frydl said Greene’s project would also likely be built in phases. Charlottesville will be reviewing how it works with VDOTSince 2005, The City of Charlottesville has planned and administered construction of transportation projects within city limits as part of something called the First Cities program or the Urban Construction Initiative. This includes major projects such as the Belmont Bridge replacement currently underway, and extends to the many Smart Scale projects for which the city has received dozens of millions of dollars in funding.This week, Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders told City Council on Monday that this arrangement is under review.“Our leadership and project management teams are completing a review of our [Virginia Department of Transportation] program ahead of a deep dive with VDOT that’s scheduled fot later this month,” Sanders said. “We anticipate some changes that we’ll be bringing to Council in regards to how we manage those projects going forward.”Last year, City Council agreed to withdraw local money required to match state funds awarded to the West Main Streetscape and to put this local dollars toward to renovations of Buford Middle School. Sanders said the city has begun work with the firm EPR on a study of Fifth Street Extended to inform a new Smart Scale application for the next round. Community meetings may be held later this month but definitely by May. Council will get a presentation at their meeting on May 16. Dairy Road bridge There is no local match necessary for the pending replacement of a bridge that carries Dairy Road over the U.S. 250 bypass. VDOT has provided $7.2 million in funding to replace the bridge from a pot of money called State of Good Repair. Tony Edwards is the Development Services Manager in the Charlottesville Public Works Department. “It received a condition rating of 4 for the deck, and therefore qualifies for the SGR funding,” Edwards said. “In 2015 the sidewalk was replaced by a separate bike and pedestrian bridge next to the original structure which will provide public access during construction.” The design phase will now begin and a public hearing for that phase will be held at some point in the future.  Pollocks Branch bacteria levels have returned to normalFinally today, the City of Charlottesville has reported that bacteria levels in a waterway south of the Downtown Mall have returned to normal. In late March, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance analyzed water samples from Pollocks Branch and found elevated levels of E.Coli. A second round of tests saw lower levels. “Given the steady decrease in E. coli levels and the lack of evidence of a source of the E. coli, the elevated levels were likely related to rainfall and associated runoff,” reads today’s announcement. The Rivanna Conservation Alliance will continue to monitor the situation. For more information, visit rivannariver.org.Support Town Crier Productions through Ting!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Two is the only even prime number, an odd fact to point out on this February 22, 2022. We are twenty days past the predictions of large rodents and less than a month away from the spring equinox. Time does move fast, but we’re still only 14.5 percent of the way through the year. Oh, the things you’ll learn in every installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement! I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. On today’s program:Albemarle County Supervisors discuss incentives for developers to build housing units below market rateMidway Manor may have a new future in which part of the downtown Charlottesville property will remain age and income restrictedA round-up of planning for other affordable housing projects in Charlottesville Albemarle County wants state regulators to require CenturyLink’s successor to maintain old copper telephone linesAnd Charlottesville wants the public to get a zoning 101Patreon-fueled shout-out to LEAPWhen you think of romance, you might not immediately think of energy efficiency - but the folks at LEAP think keeping your family comfortable at home is a great way to show you care during the month of love. Your local energy nonprofit wants to make sure you are getting the most out of your home all year round, and LEAP offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Pandemic update: Percent positivity below ten percentThe waning of the omicron surge of COVID-19 continues as the Virginia Department of Health reports a seven-day average of positive PCR tests of 9.6 percent, below ten percent for the first time since December 21. Case loads are still high, with a seven-day average of 2,423 new cases a day. Today the Blue Ridge Health District reports another 168 new cases. Deaths associated with the omicron surge continue to be recorded. As of today there have been 401 total COVID deaths in the Blue Ridge Health District and 18,230 statewide over the past 23 months. Albemarle County offers comments on transfer of CenturyLink assets to LumenThis week, the State Corporation Commission is holding two meetings on a petition from Lumen Technologies to take over control of CenturyLink. Among the public comments submitted so far is the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors who sent a letter on February 10 summarizing concerns they made to Lumen officials at a January 12 meeting. As part of the deal, the new company would acquire copper-based assets and the county wants to make sure that service continues. (hearing webpage)“Many of our vulnerable communities live in the rural areas of our county, where topography and distance often preclude cellular coverage,” the letter reads. “For these residents, this copper-plant is a vital lifeline for accessing 911 service, particularly during and after severe weather events.” The letter also includes dozens of complaints about CenturyLink service for “terrible and ineffective customer service” and for a lack of maintenance of older equipment. (letter and complaints) (second set of complaints)For anyone interested in learning more, there is a whole repository of documents available for public review, including Lumen’s petition to the SCC. Midway Manor subject of new affordable housing developmentThe Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will hold a public hearing next Monday on the issuance of up to $23 million in bonds that would be used by a California-based company to redevelop Midway Manor. In January, the property sold for $16.5 million, more than double its 2022 assessment of $7.5 million. According to a legal notice published in the Daily Progress, the new company has requested the CRHA issue up the exempt facility bonds “to assist the Applicant in financing or refinancing a portion of the costs of acquiring, constructing, renovating, rehabilitating and equipping an age restricted affordable housing development to be known as Midway Manor Apartments, to consist of 94 one-bedroom units and 4 two-bedroom units.”The notice states in capital letters that taxpayer funds will not be sought to pay back any of the debt that Standard Midway Manor Venture LP will incur. To learn more about exempt facility bonds, visit the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School. Since February 1, Midway Manor is now under management by the Franklin Johnston Group. Financing of the houses is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing through the Section 8 program, which bases rents on the income of tenants. In an email this morning, CRHA Executive Director John Sales said the agency’s only role will be to issue the bonds. Low-Income Housing Tax Credit applications underwayWe are in the season when providers of affordable housing are preparing applications for Low Income Housing Tax Credits in advance of a March deadline. Summaries have been sent to the agency formerly known as the Virginia Housing Development Authority and that’s required notifications to localities. (read all of the summaries)Piedmont Housing Alliance is seeking credits for 30 rental units at the Monticello Area Community Action Agency property on Park Street. These will be four one bedroom units, 22 two bedroom units, and four three bedroom units. The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority seeks credits from the housing authority pool for 60 units for Phase 1A of the Sixth Street redevelopment with half of them being one bedroom and the other half being two bedroom units. This is separate from Phase 1 of the Sixth Street redevelopment, for which CRHA is seeking credits from the housing authority pool for 44 units with eight of them one bedroom, 20 two bedroom units, and 16 three bedroom units. CRHA is also seeking credits for 113 units in the second phase of redevelopment of South First Street. These would replace existing units and would consist of 19 one bedroom units, 38 two bedroom units, 26 three bedroom units, 15 four bedroom units, and 15 with more than four bedrooms. Last week, the company that is constructing the development of Friendship Court issued a press release announcing the groundbreaking from January. The firm Harkins is based in Columbia, Maryland. “Friendship Court’s redevelopment will be the largest construction of low-income housing for the area in over 20 years,” reads the release. “A multi-phased project, Phase 1 will consist of 106 units with buildings 1 and 2 totaling 35 stacked townhome-style units, while building 3 will include a one-level structured parking garage and three levels as a wood-framed, center corridor apartment building.” The project is being built to Passive House standards and will be Harkins’ third such project. Charlottesville releases Zoning 101 presentationThe next new information in Charlottesville’s rewrite of the zoning code won’t be available until mid-April when staff and Rhodeside & Harwell will publish a document with an inventory of the existing housing stock versus what could be built under the new future Land Use Map. This will take the form of a Diagnosis report and an Approach report. In the meantime, the city and the Cville Plans Together team has published a new page to provide an education on what the zoning process is all about. “Today’s zoning also has a number of flaws and barriers to development previously identified by City planning staff, elected and appointed officials, and others,” reads the Cville Plans Together website. “This process is an opportunity to cure these flaws and remove the barriers to the kind of development that is described in the updated Comprehensive Plan.” In January, a group of anonymous Charlottesville property owners filed suit in Charlottesville Circuit Court seeking to overturn the validity of the Comprehensive Plan. Read more in my January 12, 2022 story on that lawsuit. Shout-out to the Charlottesville Jazz Society In today’s second subscriber-supported public service announcement: The Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and perpetuation of all that  jazz, and this Sunday the Society is sponsoring the return of Jane Bunnett and her all-female band from Cuba, Maqueque. A concert will be held at 7 p.m. at Unity of Charlottesville where Maqueque will play music from their latest release On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme. Get tickets online with discounts for students or members of the Charlottesville Jazz Society.Albemarle Supervisors discuss incentive package for housing Last July, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors adopted a housing plan that seeks to increase the number of units guaranteed to be rented or sold below the market rate. Housing Albemarle was adopted without a system of incentives to developers to keep those prices lower than they otherwise would be. That came back to the Board on February 16. Albemarle Housing Coordinator Stacy Pethia has suggested creation of an overlay district in the zoning code that would allow for reduced fees and other waivers in exchange for creating lower-priced units. “We did engage with developers and we had four meetings with developers between June and October of last year,” Pethia said. “During the first two meetings, staff listened to developer concerns and discussed housing policy goals. Based on that feedback collected during those meetings and research into incentive programs implemented in localities within Virginia and across the country, staff developed a list of potential incentives that could be in a package.”The overlay would be restricted to Albemarle’s development areas and would be optional, meaning developers would not have to participate. If they did, there would be the possibility of many ways their bottom line could be assisted. “They would offer a bonus density, reduction in building permit fees, and flexibility in design and parking standards,” Pethia said. The overlay would also allow developers to bypass the zoning process in some places if they build to the maximum density allowed in the Comprehensive Plan. At a minimum, twenty percent of units would need to be kept below market rate at levels identified in Housing Albemarle. “And the number of affordable units to be required would be calculated prior to applying the density bonus,” Pethia said. “This would provide developers with additional market rate units to help offset the cost of making the affordable units available. The incentive plan will also address a gap in Albemarle’s current policy by creating a waiting list of people who will qualify for below-market opportunities based on their income. “It’s really difficult to market the affordable units to income-qualified households and that’s really an important issue,” Pethia said. “It has meant that many of our for-sale units in particular have turned market-rate without being purchased by income-qualified households.” In public comments before the discussion, Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum wanted waivers for affordable housing projects to be mandatory rather than at the discretion of staff. “The reality is that Albemarle’s fast diminishing development areas where the easiest parcels to develop have been developed,” Williamson said. “That means parcels left to develop will likely require a special use permit. While the policy anticipates this reality, the opportunity for staff denial is too great.” Williamson also said he wanted more robust incentives such as expansion of the development area as well as the county paying the hook-up fees to the Albemarle County Service Authority for water and sewer. “Considering the importance of affordable housing to the community, certainly providing $20,000 per affordable unit is not too much to ask,” Williamson said. That would be expensive to the county. Pethia said the recent approval of Premier Circle, Rio Point, and RST Residences created 414 below-market units. If the developers were to be 100 percent reimbursed, that would cost the county $5.6 million. Supervisors were asked if they supported the idea of an overlay. Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley said she did, but not want to expand past a certain area.“I for one do not want to see development go into the rural areas and to keep development in the development area,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. Supervisor Chair Donna Price (Scottsville District) said there will come a point in time when that boundary will be adjusted, but not yet.“We’re already at the point where we have to fill in more, build up higher, or we have to expand the development areas so it’s important for community members to understand we have to look at ways to try and achieve all of our objectives which includes as long as possible limiting the amount of the development area,” Price said. Price was also skeptical of reducing parking standards at this time. “We do not have a comprehensive transportation system that can get everyone throughout the community wherever they need to do,” Price said. Supervisors approved the Rio Point on 27 acres in late December which will see a total of 328 units in an apartment complex on land that is currently undeveloped. That’s in the Rio District which is represented by Supervisor Ned Gallaway. He had looked at the draft calculation for bonus density. “So Rio Point, if I’m understanding the answer, would have allowed 1,300 units the way the math was done?” Gallaway asked Pethia.“That is correct,” Pethia said. That would be based on provisions in other programs that grant a 45 percent increase in density based on the gross density. The actual calculations will change as the incentive package is further tweaked.Gallaway suggested having the overlay apply only in certain parts of the county, such as those already identified in small area plans such as the Rio Road plan.  However, he added he is not opposed to any ideas at this point in the development of the incentives. Supervisor Jim Andrews (Samuel Miller District) said he wanted staff to take a deeper look into the results that have happened in other communities that have created developer incentives. “I would be really interested in hearing more about looking not only at what they’re doing but how successful they are at what they’re doing,” Andrews said. “Loudoun County’s proposals for example, their program I guess has been in place long enough to have a little bit of history. It looks to me like it’s having some success. Those are the ones we want to emulate if we can, if they work for our circumstances.”Supervisor Ann Mallek (White Hall) said she needed more information and for detail. “I am very concerned about an overlay that applies to every piece of direct because there is a great difference between the capability of one lot versus another to actually accomplish something and have a product where people would want to live,” Mallek said. Staff will return to the board with more information at a later date but Supervisor Gallaway pointed out that the package’s adoption will take until after the one year anniversary of the adopting of Housing Albemarle. General Assembly updateWith just over three weeks to go, action is moving fast in the General Assembly, with bills that passed in one house with a close partisan vote now meeting their fate in committee meetings. These include:The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee  killed a bill yesterday to cap the minimum wage at $11 an hour. The vote was 11 to 4. (HB296)That committee also defeated a bill to not move forward with subsequent increases mandated by a previous General Assembly. That vote was 12 to 3. (HB320)A bill to allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage if they have fewer than ten employees was also defeated 12 to 3. (HB1040)Bills to restrict collective bargaining by public employees were also defeated. (HB336) (HB337) (HB341) (HB883)The Senate Committee on Education and Health ended consideration of a bill that would made it easier for School Boards to dismiss new teachers by extending probationary periods. (HB9)The Senate Judiciary Committee defeated a bill that would have reduced penalties for violating the state’s concealed weapon laws on a 10 to 5 vote. (HB11)On a 8 to 7 vote, the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee ended consideration of a bill that would have required the parole board to review the transcript of the trial for each incarcerated person up for parole. (HB435)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Will today be an unlucky day? After all, the calendar for today does contain a 13. Would it were we could design our time without so many potential pitfalls! Still, unlike a building, Charlottesville Community Engagement cannot skip ahead to 14 because otherwise we’d fall far behind. I’m the host, Sean Tubbs, and let’s wish fortune has a wide enough brush to cover us all. On today’s program:Governor Northam says goodbye, while incoming Speaker of the House Gilbert says helloAlbemarle County is not planning on in-person meetings for now with the omicron COVID wave still ragingAnother winter storm approaches, and Charlottesville is still adjusting to missed solid waste pick-ups from the last oneAttorney General Herring said the incoming governor can’t pull Virginia out of an interstate carbon cap-and-trade marketTwo Patreon-fueled shout-outsLet’s begin today with two more Patreon-fueled shout-outs. The first comes a long-time supporter who wants you to know:"Today is a great day to spread good cheer: reach out to an old friend, compliment a stranger, or pause for a moment of gratitude to savor a delight."The second comes from a more recent supporter who wants you to go out and read a local news story written by a local journalist. Whether it be the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, C-Ville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, WINA, or some other place I’ve not mentioned - the community depends on a network of people writing about the community. Go learn about this place today!Winter storm approaching?Another winter storm is in the forecast with a lot of speculation. According to Weather Underground, Charlottesville could get as much as eight inches on Sunday, though we’ll have more information as that time approaches. On Wednesday, Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek had this advice.“Nobody knows what the winter storm Sunday is going to be but I encourage everyone to take a couple of days of sunshine to pre-clean your sidewalks and get your supplies in so we can be ready for whatever comes our way,” Mallek said.The aftermath of the January 3 storm is still being worked through. This morning, the City of Charlottesville announced that normal trash pickup has resumed, but recycling service that was missed due to the storm won’t be made up with an additional run. Trash is collected weekly in Charlottesville but recycling is every other week. “Due to resource capacity issues, our service contractor for Trash/Recycling will be unable to provide make-up recycling collection for those impacted by the suspension in service that occurred the week of January 3rd,” reads a release. “Impacted residents will receive recycling collection on their next scheduled service date.” Residents are encouraged to take their recyclable materials to the McIntire Recycling Center, on McIntire Road, which is operated by the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority. In addition, the city will pick-up debris from the January 3 storm the week of January 24. “Any adjustments to this schedule that may result from volume or operational delays will be provided to the public in as timely a manner as possible,” reads the city’s website on solid waste management. “We also encourage City residents to take advantage of the free storm debris disposal waiver being operated until January 24th at the Ivy Material Utilization Center, located at 4576 Dick Woods Road.”The Ivy MUC is also operated by the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority. Albemarle and Charlottesville are covering the fees to drop off that debris. Pandemic records continue to be brokenThe highest COVID surge in pandemic continues in Virginia with an average of 18,782 new cases a day. The seven-day percent positivity is at 35.6 percent today statewide. Today’s snapshot from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, there are 3,894 people hospitalized with COVID, with 646 of them in intensive care units. There are 349 people on ventilators. Those last two numbers are new records. On Wednesday, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors had a work session on what county staff are calling the “Reconstitution” of Albemarle government, which is a way of saying a return to in-person public hearings. Trevor Henry is the assistant county executive. “When we first set this agenda it was prior to the Omicron variant, prior to that wave hitting the region the way it has,” Henry said. This week has seen the highest numbers to date in the Blue Ridge Health District, which includes Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties. Today there are 480 cases reported. There have been five deaths reported since the beginning of the year, though that figure often lags behind as death certificates are tallied. “At this point, we will not be recommending a date certain on returning to in-person public meetings,” Henry said.Henry and other staff sought direction about how to proceed with a future where those meetings are open. The county has made investments in some rooms in order to allow remote participation by members of the public in a hybrid manner. Both Albemarle County and Charlottesville remain under a local declaration of emergency which allows for remote meetings. County Attorney Greg Kamptner explained how that would end. “The state code and the state emergency law provides when the Board [of Supervisors] in its discretion determines  that there are no further emergency services to be provided,” Kamptner said. Kamptner said the county has come close to that at certain points during the pandemic, but various surges have complicated the matter. Herring: Youngkin alone can’t remove Virginia from carbon cap-and-trade marketUntil Saturday, Mark Herring is Virginia’s chief counsel. On Tuesday, the outgoing Attorney General issued an opinion stating that Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin cannot through executive order or other executive action remove the Commonwealth of Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Virginia joined the mid-Atlantic interstate compact following an act of the General Assembly in 2020. “The [Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparation] Act directs the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to amend its regulations that established a carbon dioxide cap and trade program,” Herring wrote in the opinion. “The Constitution of Virginia does not grant the Governor the power to suspend laws.”The opinion did not come out of the blue. Herring’s advice was sought by Delegate Charniele Herring (D-46) and Delegate Rip Sullivan (D-48).On Friday, the State Corporation Commission issued a ruling granting approval of a plan from Dominion Energy to upgrade their portion of the electric grid. Dominion’s Phase II seeks to integrate more “distributed energy resources” into the power network. Their plan cites the Clean Economy act as a justification for moving to more solar, wind, and other renewable sources. “There is no doubt that significant volumes of [distributed energy resources] are coming to Virginia,” reads the plan. “The distribution grid must be ready.” The State Corporation Commission had public hearings on the plan last October, which calls for $193.8 million to install net metering infrastructure, $203.9 million on a customer information platform, and other areas to upgrade the grid. The SCC approval notes the importance of educating the public on what’s going to happen. “Customer education will ensure that the full benefits of other [grid transformation] projects are realized by educating customers on the opportunities that such projects provide,” reads page 13 the ruling. Today’s third subscriber supported shout-outMonday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society invites you to hear from their newest board member at a meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Gayle Jessup White is the first Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer for Monticello and the first descendant of Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved community to work for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Gayle Jessup White will talk about her book Reclamation: Sally Hemmings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for her Family’s Lasting Legacy. That’s 7 p.m. on Monday and you can register for the Zoom call or watch on Facebook Live. Sign up now at albemarlehistory.org. Legislative update On the first day of the General Assembly, the 2022 session in the House of Delegates is coming into shape. Delegate Rob Bell (R-58) will chair the Courts of Justice committee and will serve on the Health, Welfare and Institutions committee and the Rules Committee. Delegate Sally Hudson (D-57) will serve on the Finance Committee and Health, Welfare, and Institutions. Delegate Chris Runion (R-25) will also serve on the Finance Committee, the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee, the General Laws Committee, and the Transportation Committee.Several House committees met this morning but there are not yet bills on their agendas. Instead, members of Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s cabinet were interviewed by various committees. Over in the Senate, the Committee on Education and Health met. Remember, the Senate is still controlled by the Democratic Party with a two-seat majority, meaning Democrats hold the gavel on committees. Outgoing Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax presides over the Senate until incoming Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears is sworn in. The Senate Education and Health committee did take up legislation and began winnowing out some of the bills, or at least hitting pause on some of them. For instance, the Education and Health heard a bill from Senator Mark Peake to require the Virginia Department of Health to create a program to mitigate algae blooms. Peake said he would edit the bill to make change that requirement to go to the Department of Environmental Quality instead.  (SB171)When I published the January 12 edition of this newsletter, I had initially stated there were around 850 bills submitted. As I write these words, there are 1,634 bills. Four measures passed the House on the first day, including a commendation for former Speaker of the House Kirk Cox. Oh. Now we’re up to 1,677. The trickle is now a flood. Virginia finances up in December The Commonwealth of Virginia has reported that state revenues were up 19.2 percent in December over the previous year. According to a press release from Governor Ralph Northam’s office, that’s the fifth straight month of double-digit increases. Northam leaves office on Saturday when Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin is sworn in. “We have governed with fiscal responsibility and compassion for all Virginians—and with five straight months of double-digit revenue growth, record job creation and historic investments in Virginia families, the results speak for themselves,” Northam said.In his farewell address to the General Assembly last night, the outgoing Governor thanked his cabinet for their service and and honored Supreme Court Justices Donald Lemons and William Mims on their retirement.  He also saluted the tradition of gubernatorial addresses at the General Assembly. “This is a time when elected leaders from different branches of government, different political parties, and different parts of the state come together to talk about the Commonwealth that we all share,” Northam said. Governor-elect Youngkin will address the General Assembly on Monday night. “By then he will be your Governor and I wish him the best and I am confident that he will be lead this Commonwealth well,” Northam said. Northam reviewed his four years in office and said he has tried to govern in order to help people across Virginia. “Virginians choose leaders who will make our Commonwealth better for them and their families, no matter who they are or where they live,” Northam said. “I can confidently say that we have done that. We are leaving this Commonwealth better than it was when we came into office. We have built a state that does a better job of treating people right. It’s more welcoming. It’s more open. It is more fair. And it is more equitable.”After the speech, Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert sent out a tweet that did not share the same spirit of bipartisanship. However, seven hours earlier, Gilbert did sound bipartisan after the House of Delegates unanimously elected him as speaker. That’s a tradition in Virginia politics. “Thank you for the trust that all of you have placed in me willingly,” Gilbert said. “Some unwillingly, admittedly, but thank you nonetheless. I do not take this responsibility lightly and I pledge to you that I will give the utmost to be a Speaker for all of Virginia.”And as we end this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, none of the 1,693 bills filed so far have failed. Give it time. This is a public episode. 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There have been a dozen days to the year so far, and after today there are 29.4 dozen 24-hour periods left until we all sing Auld Lang Syne once again. Until then, let’s not forget any of our acquaintances for now, and let’s stock up on cups of kindness. This is Charlottesville Community Engagement for this particular period of time, and I’m Sean Tubbs, here everyday “to take a right goodwill draught for auld lang syne.” Sign up for free for regular installments of information. Payment is encouraged, but not mandatory. On today’s show:New data shows that inflation is occurring at the highest rate since 1982Charlottesville City Council holds interviews for interim city manager but don’t yet make a decisionRegional planners get a first look at a rezoning at UVA’s North Fork Discovery Park The Charlottesville Democratic Committee selects two new co-chairsCharlottesville’s NDS director gives a preview of the rewrite of the zoning ordinanceTwo options are alive for a pedestrian bridge over the Rivanna River Today’s first subscriber supported shout-outMonday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society invites you to hear from their newest board member at a meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Gayle Jessup White is the first Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer for Monticello and the first descendant of Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved community to work for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Gayle Jessup White will talk about her book Reclamation: Sally Hemmings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for her Family’s Lasting Legacy. That’s 7 p.m on Monday and you can register for the Zoom call or watch on Facebook Live. Sign up now at albemarlehistory.org. More “investigation” needed before interim city manager pickCharlottesville City Council met in closed session for over three hours yesterday to meet with candidates for interim city manager. The five elected officials met with Robert Bobb of the Robert Bobb Group as well, but had nothing much to report at the end of the meeting. Here’s Mayor Lloyd Snook. “We have interviewed some very impressive candidates,” Snook said. “We have some further investigation yet to be done. We are not yet prepared to make a decision but expect to make a decision probably on Tuesday, January 18.” Council’s regular meeting will be that day due to the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Zoning rewrite updateIn November, the City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Plan as the second leg of the Cville Plans Together initiative. The first was adoption of a new affordable housing plan in March. The next step is the rewriting of the city’s zoning code. James Freas, the director of Neighborhood Development Services, told the Charlottesville Planning Commission that the public process for the three phases of the zoning rewrite will kick off at the end of the month.“What we are looking at is a complete rewrite,” Freas said. “This isn’t going to take your existing ordinance and redline it and make changes. This is going to be a complete rewrite.” Freas said some portions of the existing code would be copied over into the new version with new formatting and wording. “There are some aspects of the new ordinance we anticipate bringing over wholesale but it will be a new document,” Freas said. The first phase will be a diagnostic comparing the existing zoning code to the Comprehensive Plan to eliminate barriers to implementation. A report will come before the Planning Commission and City Council for approval before the drafting process begins.“That first phase will probably take us up to the end of May, hopefully not, but maybe the beginning of June but I’m anticipating that first phase will take us to the end of May,” Freas said.In the fall, drafts will begin to be shared with the Planning Commission and Council. The adoption process will be the third phase and that section has not yet been determined. “But we’re anticipating that adoption process taking us into 2023 and culminating in a vote by Council sometime in the spring of 2023,” Freas said. There will be a community engagement process, but of course, there will also be Charlottesville Community Engagement. Details to come as they’re known. During the process, there will be at least two new Planning Commissioners. The terms of Commissioners Jody Lahendro and Taneia Dowell will expire at the end of August and neither can reapply. Commissioner Karim Habbab is filling out an unexpired term that ends in August, but he can reapply. Hosea Mitchell and Rory Stolzenberg’s terms expire at the end of August, too, and both can reapply. Comprehensive Plan lawsuitLast week, a group of citizens filed a lawsuit in Charlottesville Circuit Court against the validity of the Comprehensive Plan. The argument cites four specific failures and asks that Council’s vote be held null and void. The seven plaintiffs are Charlottesville residents seeking to withhold their identity. They argue the Future Land Use Map “radically increases density within the city” in a way that violates state code. (read the argument)“Unlike the Comprehensive Plans that are contemplated by the General Assembly…the Plan at issue is very specific, and assigns new zoning designations to each specific parcel in the City,” reads paragraph 15 of the argument. “As a result of this approach, the City’s actions are already  having a direct impact on property owners.” The argument singles out one home on 10th Street NW that is now listed on the market for $485,000 but has a 2021 assessment of $315,600. According to the real estate listing, there are currently three one-bedroom apartments there, but states “Charlottesville City's new proposed plan shows this property as mixed urban use.”The suit also argues the plan does not sufficiently plan for transportation improvements within the city to support additional growth, and that the public notice for the adoption on November 15 was not sufficient. The city has not yet been served with the lawsuit, according to city attorney Lisa Robertson. (image) The lawsuit was filed on December 15, 2021 but has not yet been served to the parties, which would trigger a response from the defendants. Read the argument here. Charlottesville Democrats pick new chairsThere’s new leadership in the Charlottesville Democratic Committee. At a reorganizational meeting on Monday, about a hundred participants selected John McLaren and Dashad Cooper to serve as the co-chairs of the committee. McLaren is a resident of the Martha Jefferson neighborhood and Cooper is a student at Piedmont Virginia Community College who worked on the City Council campaigns of Brian Pinkston and Juandiego Wade. The vice chair is Nancy Damon, a Fry’s Spring resident and former member of the Charlottesville Planning Commission. The secretary will continue to be Mary Ann Harris. Jason Vandever is the party’s treasurer.  Vandever was elected as the city’s treasurer in a special election in 2013 and has held the position ever since. The Republican Party of Charlottesville has not fielded a City Council candidate since 2015 when Anson Parker was their candidate. The chair of the party in Charlottesville is Dan Moy and the treasurer is Buddy Weber. Weber ran for Council in 2013 along with former Planning Commissioner Mike Farruggio. Second subscriber supported shout-outAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU. Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.Regional planners get preview of North Fork rezoningAn official group of planning officials from around the Charlottesville area got a preview last month on a major rezoning on land at the University of Virginia Foundation’s North Fork research park. The Land Use Environmental and Planning Committee was created in 2019 when elected officials agreed to cease meeting in public as a body known as the Planning and Coordination Council.  One of its members is Hosea Mitchell of the Charlottesville Planning Commission.“They are actually asking for a rezoning and the rezoning is to allow for residential to be included in the industrial developments that they’re doing there,” Mitchell said. The presentation at the December meeting was made by Fred Missel, the UVA Foundation’s director of design and development. He has since been named to serve on the Albemarle Planning Commission as a voting member after spending several years on the Albemarle Architectural Review Board. The LUEPC meetings are not open to the public, but Missel presented the rezoning in detail. The Foundation seeks a rezoning for portions of the North Fork park to the Neighborhood Model District. The Code of Development calls for a multiblock approach with a minimum of 200 residential units and a maximum of 1,400 units. The University of Virginia has announced this location as one of three sites where the Foundation will partner with a developer to build affordable units. At North Fork, buildings would be up to six stories. Albemarle County’s first round of comments back to the foundation are due at the end of this month, according to the presentation. A community meeting will also need to be held for the rezoning.  Back to the Land Use, Environmental and Planning Committee. This year, the city of Charlottesville takes on administrative responsibility for the group. According to Mitchell, utilities director Lauren Hildebrand will be the chair this year. The University of Virginia Master Planning Council meets next week. Those meetings are not open to the public but there are representatives from Albemarle and Charlottesville. Rivanna bridge options narrowed to onePlans are being made to build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Rivanna River and the Charlottesville Planning Commission got an update last night. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Committee is leading the efforts and a stakeholders group has been meeting to review options. One of its members is Planning Commission Karim Habbab. “The two options that we’re looking at are a connection near Riverview Park on Chesapeake and the other would be at the Wool Factory,” Habbab said. “One would span between city and county and the other would be basically on county land.”The Woolen Mills is located on a small peninsula of Albemarle County that is landlocked within Charlottesville. The stakeholder group will take a tour of the two sites on Friday. Prices continues to riseThe cost of goods in the United States has increased seven percent over the last 12 months according to data released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the largest yearly increase since 1982. The consumer price index rose half a percentage point in December.“Increases in the indexes for shelter and for used cars and trucks were the largest contributors to the seasonally adjusted all items increase,” reads the press release. “The energy index declined in December, ending a long series of increases.”Overall, energy prices increased 29.3 percent from December 2020 to December 2021. Pre-filing period for General Assembly completedBy the time you hear or see this, the Virginia General Assembly will have convened for the 2022 session. Republicans now have 52 seats in the House of Delegates and the Speaker is now Todd Gilbert, a Republican from the 15th District. Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn will be the minority leader with 48 seats. Yesterday, Democrats retained the 89th District in Norfolk when Democrat Jackie Hope Glass defeated the Republican candidate with 75 percent of the vote. (election results) For the past couple of weeks I’ve been writing up some of the bills, and now we’ll see how many make their way through the legislative process. General Assembly sessions move fast. Here’s some more of the legislation to give you a sense of this aspect of our democracy: Delegate M. Keith Hodges (R-98) has a bill that would assign chief executive powers to the Mayor of the Town of Urbanna in Middlesex County. (HB190)Hodges has another bill that would create the position of Special Advisor to the Governor for Health Workforce Development. (HB191)Another bill from Hodges would add more chemicals to Virginia’s list of Schedule 1 drugs, including 4-chloro-alpha-methylaminobutiophenone. Also known as 4-chloro Buphedrone. (HB193)Delegate Chris Runion (R-25) filed legislation that would allow electric cooperatives to petition the State Corporation Commission for permission to raise rates to recover the cost of providing broadband. (HB194)Delegate Michael Webert (R-18) has a bill that would allow school board to use an alternative system to measure the progress of elementary and middle school students in reading and mathematics. Specifically, the NWEA MAP Growth system. (HB197)Webert also filed legislation that would require localities that do not provide in-person instruction to pay parents who remove their children from school “a prorated share of the applicable Standards of Quality per-pupil state funds appropriated for public school purposes.” (HB201)Another bill from Webert would prohibit localities from removing property from land use taxation programs if a hardship related to an emergency declaration made by a governor. (HB199)Webert also has legislation that would lower the threshold for streamlined permitting processes for solar facilities from 150 megawatts to 20 megawatts (HB202)Delegate Keith Hodges (R-98) has filed a bill that would allow certain pharmacies to sell cannabis products at the retail level without a prescription to people over the age of 21. (HB211)Delegate Karen Greenhalgh has submitted a bill to require physicians and nurses to follow certain procedures related to getting a woman’s informed written consent when a woman seeks an abortion. (HB212)Senator Mark Peake (R-22) filed a bill directing the Virginia Department of Health to develop a plan to mitigate algae blooms. (SB171)Peake has another bill that would allow nurses to pronounce a person dead (SB169)Peake would also end the state’s further minimum wage increase, capping it at $11 an hour. (SB173)Babysitters, home health aides, and personal care aides would no longer be considered “domestic workers” under another bill from Peake (SB179)A bill from Senator Montgomery Mason would allow people with advanced degrees in public health to serve as health directors, something that’s currently reserved for people with medical degrees. (SB192)Senator Joe Morrissey (D-16) wants Petersburg to be added to the list of cities that can hold a local referendum to allow for opening of a casino. (SB203)Senator Chap Petersen (D-34) has a bill to require the Virginia Department of Health to expedite the process to issue certificates of need for certain medical facilities, such as increased psychiatric beds. (SB205)Senator Jeremy McPike (D-29) would require all candidates for office to file electronically with the Department of Elections. (SB222)More tomorrow. t This is a public episode. 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If a year was something that buffered, we’d now be approaching 2.8 percent. It will take some time to see how this particular calendar will resolve, but the past week certainly provides some evidence of turbulence. Still, there’s a long way to go and Charlottesville Community Engagement seeks to provide one channel of information to steady your way. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. In this installment:Deputy City Manager Sanders briefs City Council on efforts to make 5th Street Extended safer and Council holds first reading on two affordable housing projects on Park Street Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin fills out his cabinet with picks for Labor, Health and Human Resources, and Transportation More legislation is filed in the Virginia General Assembly that shows the signs of a Republican majority in one of the houses A third round of RGGI-funded grant money for flood mitigation has opened Today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement For sixty years Camp Albemarle, which has been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting http://campalbemarleva.org/donate. The pandemic continuesVirginia continues to be in a plateau of a high number of COVID cases and hospitalizations. Today the Virginia Department of Health reports a seven-day percent positivity of 35.6 percent with another 15,643 cases. The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reports a new record of COVID hospitalizations today with 3,681. Of those, 567 are in intensive care units and 314 are on ventilators. To address the issue, outgoing Governor Ralph Northam has issued a 30-day order to increase the number of hospital beds. “This increase in people hospitalized due to COVID-19—the overwhelmingmajority of whom are unvaccinated—is placing stress on Virginia’s general hospitals and nursing facilities and creating a sudden yet temporary need to increase bed capacity in these facilities,” reads the order’s introduction.Among other things, Executive Order 84 authorizes some state officials to move more quickly with procurement efforts, and allows the State Health Commissioner to temporarily increase the number of hospital bed authorized to operate in the Commonwealth. The Blue Ridge Health District reports another 202 new cases today and the percent positivity has increased to 28.3 percent. District officials will hold a town hall meeting tonight beginning at 7 p.m. The item was rescheduled from last week due to the winter storm. (meeting info)Albemarle and Charlottesville to sponsor vegetation drop-off at Ivy MUCIf you’ve got a lot of damaged tree limbs and other vegetation and have a way to get it to the Ivy Materials Utilization Center, there will be no fees to drop it off through January 17. Albemarle and Charlottesville  have both agreed to pay the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority to waive the fees. The Ivy center is located at 4576 Dick Woods Road and the material can be dropped off during regular hours.“Vegetative debris collected will be ground into mulch and available for purchase at Ivy MUC,” reads a release on the RSWA website. “Residents must show proof of residency and state that the debris is storm-related.”  Last week, Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders told Council the city cannot yet offer curbside pick-up due to staffing shortages that have been worsened due to the pandemic. On Facebook today, the Department of Public Works stated they are “in the process of preparing for a special City-wide debris pickup service, to assist with clean-up efforts from the recent weather event. Timing and scheduling information are still being finalized, and those details will follow soon.”Youngkin fills Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services postsIn five days, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin will be sworn in, and he’s now filled a good portion of his cabinet.This morning, Youngkin announced that his Secretary of Health and Human Resources will be John Littel, who has recently been the president of Magellan Health. Magellan was just purchased by another company last week for $2.2 billion. Littel has previously served as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources in Virginia and as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. Youngkin said Littel would “be an asset as we fix our broken mental and behavioral health system, ensure Virginians have access to affordable, free-market healthcare options, and reform our healthcare safety net to save taxpayer dollars and improve healthcare outcomes.” No word yet on a replacement for Norm Oliver as Virginia’s Commissioner of Health. Kay Cole James has been selected as the Secretary of the Commonwealth. James has most recently served as the President of the Heritage Foundation and has a long history of working in Republican administration in both Richmond and Washington, D.C. According to the release, James served as Virginia’s Secretary of Health under Governor George Allen and “developed Virginia’s landmark welfare reform.” James has served as co-chair of Youngkin’s transition team. A long-term member of the Commonwealth Transportation Board will serve as Youngkin’s Transportation Secretary. W. Sheppard Miller served on the board from 2011 to 2014 and joined it again in 2018 when appointed by Governor Ralph Northam. Speaking of the CTB, it next meets tomorrow and Wednesday. Youngkin has selected George “Bryan” Slater as Secretary of Labor. Slater has previously served in Republican administrations in Richmond and D.C. including Secretary of Administration under Governor Jim Gilmore. He served as Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at the U.S. Department of Labor in the Trump administration.  Margaret “Lyn” McDermid will serve as the next Secretary of Administration, which includes the Departments of General Service, Human Resource Management, and Elections, as well as the Virginia Information Technologies Agency and the Compensation Board, McDermid worked as Chief Information Officer for the Federal Reserve Information Technology from 2013 to 2020. Congressman Donald McEachin has sent a letter to Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw urging the General Assembly to block the nomination of Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural Resources. McEachin cited several times state legislators have blocked judicial appointments and board nominations. In 2006, the Republican-led Senate rejected Governor Kaine’s choice for Secretary of the Commonwealth. (read the letter)Two days left until the General Assembly The opening of the 2022 Virginia General Assembly is in two days and there aren’t too many days I’ll be able to write out interesting bills, but I will be switching over to reporting on what happens with some of them. Hundreds of bills will be filed, and many will be dismissed in committee. The pace has seriously picked up, so this is a much shorter list. Republicans continue to file bills to undo changes the Democratic majority made to various bills, particularly in the area of criminal justice. For instance, Delegate John Mcguire (R-56) filed a bill to lower the threshold for felony larceny back to $500, down from the increase to $1,000 made within the year. (HB107)McGuire also has a bill that would prevent localities from creating a Police Civilian Review Board. (HB110)Delegate Marie March (R-7) has a bill requiring school buses to have decals that say “In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God.” (HB113)March has another bill that would prevent governments from doing any activity that a private business could provide. (HB119)Delegate Nick Frietas (R-30) has a bill that would remove powers of the State Air Pollution Control Board and the State Corporation Commission to regulate carbon emissions in order to meet previously stated greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. (HB118)Delegate Scott Wyatt (R-97) would limit absentee voting to 10 days before an election, would require an absentee ballot to have the last four numbers of a voter’s social security number, and would add other restrictions. (HB121)Delegate Chris Runion (R-25) has a similar bill to Wyatt’s that would require witnesses to absentee ballot certification to also provide a signature, name, address, date of birth, and the last four digits of their social security number. (HB149)Wyatt has a bill similar to others that would repeal provisions that prevent law enforcement from pulling motorists over for certain infractions, ending another Democratic initiative. (HB122)Delegate Glenn Davis (R-84) has a bill that would allow ranked choice voting in party primaries, including the Presidential election. (HB129)Delegate Mike Cherry (R-66) has a bill to repeal the prohibition of having firearms on school property. (HB133)Third round opens for RGGI funded flood programGovernor-elect Glenn Youngkin has pledged to withdraw Virginia from an interstate cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) through an executive order. Whether or not he’s successful, Virginia so far has received $227.6 million from the program, and just under half of it is intended to help localities pay for projects to mitigate the threat of additional flooding. The third round for applications has opened for the Community Flood Preparedness Fund.“During the next 90 days, communities across Virginia will be able to apply for $40 million in grants to address the effects of recurrent flooding, sea level rise and extreme weather,” reads a press release for the application. This will be the first round since completion of the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan in December. Charlottesville has had two projects funded so far, and Scottsville has had one. Visit the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s website to learn more. Second subscriber-supported shout-outCode for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects such as an expungement project with the Legal Aid Justice Center, a map of Charlottesville streetlights, and the Charlottesville Housing Hub. Visit codeforcville.org to learn about those projects.Fifth Street Extended safety discussion The first meeting of the Charlottesville City Council is in the books. At the top of the meeting, Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders explained what the city is going to address safety concerns on Fifth Street Extended. According to crash data from the Virginia Department of Transportation, there were three fatalities in 2020 on the divided highway. Police have confirmed there was another on the night of New Years Day. “We very much remain concerned about the serious safety concern along that corridor,” Sanders said. “Our traffic engineer has been working to effect improvements with a few updates. We are pursuing a speed limit reduction. We have been working on that and you will have that matter before you at your next meeting.” Sanders said flashing “signal ahead” signs are on back order and have been delayed due to supply chain issues. He said some intersection warning signs had been installed. “We feel as though they weren’t big enough so we are in the process of expediting their swap-out,” Sanders said. Sanders said the long-term strategy will be to break down the roadway’s current character. “An example of that would be the installation of a roundabout midway on the corridor but that too is going to be very difficult for us to figure out but we’re committed to doing that and we want you to know we’re not moving away from this as a high-priority,” Sanders said. Charlottesville has been awarded several projects through the Virginia Department of Transportation’s SmartScale program in the immediate area. They are:$6.1 million for improvements on 5th Street SW to “reduce congestion, improve safety, and accommodate bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit at the intersection of Ridge Street, Cherry Avenue, Elliot Aveune (sic).” (details)$8.78 million for improvements to Ridge Street to “design and construct multi-modal improvements along the Ridge Street Corridor. Sidewalk and Curb Ramp upgrades; signal improvements at Monticello; Curb extensions on Ridge St. at Dice St. and Oak St..including bicycle lanes.” (details)There’s also West Main Street Phase 1 and Phase 2, two related projects that Council has indicated they will no longer support with local taxpayer dollars. Council holds first reading on Piedmont Housing projects on Park StreetIn their first land use items of the year, and the first rezonings since the Comprehensive Plan was updated in November, Council appeared to approve two projects on Park Street submitted by the Piedmont Housing Alliance. Let’s hear City Planner Dannan O’Connell describe the one at Park Street Christian Church.“The proposed PUD development plan calls for 50 multifamily units and about 54 parking spaces to be constructed at the rear of the existing church site,” O’Connell said. And here is with the project at the Monticello Area Community Action Agency, two blocks to the south. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville is also participating in that project. “The proposed PUD development plan calls for preservation of the two existing single-family homes, 28 new townhome or duplex units, 65 multifamily units in two buildings, and a maximum of 7,500 square feet of commercial child care space.” Because the public hearings for the items were held in mid-December, anyone who wanted to speak to the matter had to do so at the beginning of the meeting. Brian Day represented the congregation at Park Street Christian Church. “The project for affordable senior housing has had tremendous support from IMPACT Charlottesville and the enthusiastic and unanimous support approval from the Planning Commission as well,” Day said. “To be a vibrant city we need affordable housing and we are ready to help you make this possible. Kimber Hawkey, a Belmont resident, asked Council to delay a vote on the MACAA project. “I’m just asking that the Council take a step back and wait to do any kind of approval on this until there’s more study on traffic impact as well as the affordability,” Hawkey said. “It looks like a promising project but given the traffic and public safety indication, it seems inappropriate in size for the location.”Traffic improvements at the Park Street Christian Church project include improvements granting an easement to the city to allow for brush to be cleared to increase sight distance at the intersection of Park Street and Cutler Lane, as well as a crosswalk across Park Street at Cutler Lane. The affordability level at Park Street Christian Church will depend on a number of factors, including how successful Piedmont Housing Alliance will be in getting low income housing tax credits in the next cycle.“We don’t have specificity in there around the exact depth of affordability in part because you can only finalize that when you have finalized all of the costs and all of the subsidies so you know how deeply affordable you can go,” said Sunshine Mathon, the executive director of Piedmont Housing Alliance.Mathon said the target will be that five units will be households less than 30 percent of the area median income, and the majority will ideally be less than 50 percent of the AMI. All units will accept federal housing vouchers. The city has not yet contributed any funding to this project. According to a preliminary audit of the city’s affordable housing funds by the firm HR&A, Piedmont Housing Alliance has received around $10 million from Charlottesville, including about $6 million for the Friendship Court redevelopment. (read the update from HR&A)Mathon said this project will also require city funding to close a financing gap. Piedmont Housing Alliance has submitted a request for $1.5 million in city funding. “I would rather rely on state or federal sources to cover that gap but inevitably city sources have to be part of that capital stack in the current day and age,” Mathon said. For the Park Street Christian Church, Piedmont Housing Alliance will not submit an application for low-income housing tax credits until the 2023 cycle. The Park Street Christian Church item will go before Council at their next meeting on a consent agenda. There was more discussion about the MACAA project. Transportation improvements include a realignment of MACAA Drive to be directly across from Davis Avenue to make a safer intersection, as well as a crosswalk. The intersection would remain unsignalized. An existing driveway from one of the single-family houses will be eliminated. Councilor Brian Pinkston said there was a lot to like about the project but he was skeptical the traffic improvements would mitigate congestion. “But there’s still this fact that at that intersection particularly where 250 and Park are right now is a difficult place to get through,” Pinkston said. Councilor Michael Payne had concerns about loss of tree cover. An engineer with the Timmons Group said the development would exceed the city’s requirement for replacement. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade said he felt good about the project, but asked several questions about its impact on traffic. “If we don’t address some of those, I think they’re being addressed, then it won’t be a pleasant living environment for the new residents as well as the current residents of the neighborhood,” Wade said. Mayor Snook said he did not think the additional traffic would result in conditions as hazardous as on Fifth Street Extended.  “It’s just simply not going to happen,” Snook said. “You don’t have a four-lane highway. You don’t have it divided. You don’t have it 45 miles an hour. You may well see some incremental increase in rear-enders, minor low-impact kinds of collisions. I don’t mean to downplay them and to say that’s irrelevant but I think it’s kind of distorting to throw that argument in there.”The MACAA issue will not come back on the consent agenda but will instead come back for a discussion and to allow the applicant to further address concerns raised at the meeting. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

‘Tis the day before Christmas, and all through the town, there may or may not be stirring. I don’t know. I’m not there and away for a family holiday. But there’s too much information to not put out an installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, no matter where I am. The “I” in that last sentence is Sean Tubbs, who conveniently happens to be me. He and I are the co-hosts in this and every installment of the program. Thanks for listening. On today’s program: It’s unfortunately beginning to look a lot like an omicron Christmas, with this season’s COVID surge on track to surpass last year’sDanville City Council adopts a one-cent sales tax increase to pay for school renovationsMore new bills are filed for the next General Assembly including…In today’s shout-out, a shout-out to the shouters-of out! I want to thank all of the individuals and entities that have supported this newsletter and podcast through a $25 a month Patreon contribution or through some other combination of support. Thanks to the Charlottesville Jazz Society, Code for Charlottesville, LEAP, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance, Lonnie Murray and his penchant for native plants, WTJU, the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society, the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards, Cville 350, Piedmont Master Gardeners, and of course, the Valley Research Center. More in 2022Pandemic updateOn the day before Christmas, the Virginia Department of Health reports its second highest total of new COVID cases since the pandemic began with 8,756 cases. The percent positivity rate has increased to 11.3 percent. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are 170 new cases and another four deaths have been reported since Wednesday. Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System, is not surprised by the surge.“Importantly what we’re also seeing in certain parts of the state like Alexandria and Arlington, they’re seeing their highest ever one-day totals,”For Alexandria, that meant 316 cases reported on Thursday and 310 cases reported today. Arlington set a one-day total today with 592, surpassing yesterday’s previous one-day record at 359. Richmond also set a one day of 346 today. Rural communities across Virginia are not yet seeing the same spike. “We’re seeing a rapid ascent in terms of total number of cases,” said Dr. Sifri. “This is being seen around the country in a lot of different locations and I think that we should anticipate that we’re going to continue to see this rapid rise, this sort of steep wall of COVID and it appears to be driven by Omicron across most of the state.” Dr. Sifri said researchers are learning more about the variant every day but it appears that cases are not translating into increased hospitalizations, but only time will tell if the size of the wave will still overpower Virginia’s hospitals. He added the UVA Health System had already been recovering from a slight surge from the Delta variant. “I think one of the biggest questions that sort of remains is how well does vaccination and then booster vaccination protect against Omicron,” Dr. Sifri said. “We are learning in the early reports that the two-dose mRNA vaccine does not provide as much protection as we’d like to see. Probably only around 40 percent based on some U.K. early estimates. And then a booster does improve that to around 70 or 75 percent depending on the type of vaccine that you received. Again, those are early data from the United Kingdom. It would be nice and important to see what does that mean here in the United States.”Dr. Sifri strongly recommends everyone get a booster given the unknowns. As of Thursday, 67.2 percent of the total Virginia population is fully vaccinated, but only 1.8 million have received a booster or a third dose. According to the Virginia Department of Health, unvaccinated individuals develop COVID at a rate of 4.1 times of fully vaccinated people, based on data through December 18. “In terms of what we see with people that are hospitalized it is still by and large still to this date people who have not been vaccinated,” Dr. Sifri said. “That is the largest portion of people that are hospitalized with COVID. When we’re taking care of a patient, when they’re in front us we really don’t know if it’s due to Delta or Omicron. We only can collect that information as its reported through our public health agencies.”Dr. Sifri said the situation with Omicron is still fast-moving and more information is needed to tell a complete picture. He said anyone who had COVID before vaccines became available is still potentially vulnerable. “Omicron is different enough that we are concerned that protection is incomplete and we certainly know from other variants and prior studies that the level of protection after so-called natural infection is not as robust as that that is afforded by a vaccination,” Dr. Sifri said.To get a booster or a vaccine, visit vaccinate.virginia.gov. Danville adopts sales-tax increaseIn the upcoming session of the Virginia General Assembly, the city of Charlottesville will seek permission to hold a referendum on a one-cent sales tax increase. That’s the path Danville took in 2020 when they and several other Southside communities petitioned the 2020 General Assembly to the list of “qualifying localities” that could have such a ballot initiative. In November, Danville citizens voted 7,515 to 4,921 in favor of levying the tax.On Tuesday, the seven-member Danville City Council voted unanimously to levy the tax, which will expire at the end of May of 2041. Vice Mayor Gary Miller had this observation before the vote. G.W. is George Washington High School. “Today I had a patient in and her daughter was a proud member of the 1965 GW Women’s Championship basketball team, the last time they won the state championship,” Miller said. “She said she was dismayed. She’d been to GW, that’s where she graduated, and she said how dismal the schools was and she didn’t think it was conducive to learning. And I was just happy to assure her that with the passage of this referendum and the sales tax, that school’s going to look like a different school in just few years and you wouldn’t be able to recognize it.”So far, there’s no pre-filed legislation for Charlottesville to be added to the list of qualifying localities. New 2022 General Assembly billsSeveral new bills were filed on Wednesday. Senator Travis Hackworth (R-Richlands) has introduced a bill eliminating a requirement that local school boards adopt policies regarding the treatment of transgendered students. (SB20)Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) has filed a bill calling for a Constitutional amendment granting the right for people convicted of felons to be able to vote upon release. (SB21)Locke also filed legislation to increase the membership of the American Revolution 250 Commission add four legislators to total of 26 people. (SB22)Another bill from Locke would allow cities with African American cemeteries to be added to the list of entities that can receive state funds to care for them (SB23)Locke’s fourth bill submitted on 12/22 would extend the expiration date of the Eviction Diversion Program one year to July 1, 2024. (SB24)Senator Frank Ruff (R-Clarksville) introduced a bill relating to the cigarette tax that counties can now levy. Businesses that have existing inventory purchased before imposition of the tax could pay the tax without having it stamped or metered. (SB25)Ruff’s second bill would remove a sunset date for a sales tax exemption for the sale of gold, silver, and platinum bullion, as well as legal tender coins. (SB26)Ruff’s third bill would expand the availability of the Neighborhood Assistance Program and the Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credit program (SB27)Chickahominy PipelineThe state agency that regulates the power generation and the transmission of fuel has ruled that an entity that wants to build an 83-mile natural gas pipeline across several Central Virginia is a public utility. That means the Chickahominy Pipeline must be approved by the State Corporation Commission. The company that wants to build it argued they were merely transporting the gas and not selling it. “The Commission agreed that the pipeline company will own and operate a facility through which natural gas will be sold and used for the purpose of heat, light or power,” reads a press release. “Thus, a certificate of public convenience and necessity is required before constructing facilities for use in public utility service.”According to the release, Chickahominy Pipeline intends to connect with an existing natural gas pipeline. Read the full order here.This is Charlottesville Community Engagement and I want to continue the mixed-up holiday by giving thanks to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their support of the Week Ahead newsletter. For 71 weeks now, PEC has sponsored the creation of each Sunday’s look at what’s coming up in local government. I also want to give thanks to Ting for their matching of Substack payments. Creating a community newsletter that seeks to cover as much ground as this one takes a lot of work, and I’m grateful to everyone’s support. Now, let’s get back to the show! Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

After a short introduction and a yearlong hiatus, Troutman Pepper Battery + Storage Podcast host Bill Derasmo and his guest Andy Flavin discuss recent national developments (e.g., FERC's Broadview Solar decision), but focus the lion's share of Episode 7 on the energy storage market in Virginia. Specifically, the podcast examines the Virginia Clean Economy Act, legislation establishing a mandatory renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and specific targets for construction/acquisition of solar, wind, and energy storage facilities. Episode 7 also covers energy storage regulations set by the State Corporation Commission, as well as Virginia energy storage siting requirements and what approach to take in other states without such requirements. Finally, Bill and Andy look at electric transmission considerations for utility-scale storage facilities, both in Virginia and more broadly in RTO markets.

Two months down, ten more to go. The days are getting longer and soon we’ll pass through the Ides of March and then the equinox on our way to a complete year. The calendar reads March 1, 2021, and this is the first installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement of this 31-day period. This first installment of the month is supported by the two hundred people who have now made a financial contribution to allow me to keep doing this work each and every day. I’m almost a year into this experiment in independent journalism, and I’m grateful. If you’re interested in helping me make this endeavor sustainable, contact me and I can suggest some options. On today’s show:Louisa County announces $15 million investment to bring about universal broadband (watch the announcement)Charlottesville City Council will be asked to endorse Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan,  six week after the Planning Commission took a lookThe city’s proposed capital budget allocates a smaller amount for proposed 7th Street Parking GarageTonight, Charlottesville City Council will take action on whether to add the Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan to the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Council’s public hearing was held on January 12, 2021 during the Planning Commission and they wanted some revisions. City planner Matt Alfele said at that meeting that this plan has been a long time in the making. (read the draft plan)“I know one of the driving principles of our community is engagement and letting the neighborhood drive the planning process,” Alfele said. “This is very true with the plan in front of you tonight.” In 2015, the Fifeville Neighborhood Association created a visioning document to position their location to be the next area chosen to receive the master planning treatment. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District was hired to develop the plan, which Alfele said will fit into the overall city planning process in Charlottesville including the Comprehensive Plan.“The Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan if adopted is a high-level policy document that will help with the completion of these other documents, most notable the zoning rewrite,” Alfele said. Some background on the small area plan process in the draft Cherry Avenue Plan TJPDC planner Nick Morrison explained why Fifeville residents wanted this plan.“Residents of Fifeville had noted the specter of displacement specifically of long-time residents and the need for additional affordable housing,” Morrison said. “Stresses on the neighborhood from traffic, particularly along the commercial corridor of Cherry Avenue.” The neighborhood came up with a series of goals they wanted from the plan. Morrison stated one of them.“To lift up and preserve Fifeville’s legacy of African-American leadership and highlight its unique sense of place as a culturally diverse neighborhood,” Morrison said. A chart in the plan states that residents do not want to see large apartment buildings such as the ones on West Main Street, but do want to see preservation of existing housing and creation of new subsidized housing. There are several undeveloped parcels on Cherry Avenue and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard within a mixed-use district. A medium-density residential district runs along 5th Street Extended which would allow some multifamily apartment buildings by-right. A special use permit would be needed for projects between 22 and 43 dwelling units per acre. Councilor Lloyd Snook noted a tension between the desire of the neighborhood to remain at a low residential density on the one hand, and a push for the city to build more units to increase supply on the other.“I’m just conscious of the fact that in the next year when we’re going to be having an affordable housing plan, a Comprehensive Plan, and a zoning code, we’re going to have to confront sort of the second order issue here and focusing only on information and opinion on only the first order issue may not help us in the long run in our analysis,” Snook said. Before recommending approval, commissioners asked for more information on renovations and teardowns that have taken place between 2010 and 2020. One of the transportation recommendations is already funded. T-3 calls for the widening of a turn lane from Cherry Avenue onto Ridge Street. Charlottesville was awarded a $6.1 million Smart Scale grant for a project called 5th Street SW Corridor Improvements. Council will also be presented with a $190.7 million operating and capital budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. During a press briefing today, City Manager Chip Boyles said preparing a budget during a time of economic uncertainty has been a challenge for staff.“Known decreased revenues in the current year and unknown revenue and expense projections for fiscal year 2022 make this a difficult task at best,” Boyles said. “Staff has taken a very conservative approach to go into FY22 and is hoping for the best.”Meals tax and lodging tax revenues have been down sharply since the pandemic with restrictions in place on gathering spaces. Staff expect the trend to continue into the fiscal year. Ryan Davidson is a senior budget management analyst with Charlottesville.“For lodging and meals, neither of those do we see getting back to 100 percent of pre-COVID collection rates before the end of the next fiscal year,” Davidson said. “Hopefully we’ll be wrong and things will rebound.” One change made during the development of the capital budget is that there is only one million in funding in the next fiscal year for the proposed 7th Street Parking garage, with $7 million expected to be spent in fiscal year 23. Krissy Hammill is the other senior budget management analyst. She said the city can still meet its obligations to provide parking for Albemarle County per a 2018 agreement to build a joint General District Court downtown. “The dollar amount that’s put in here now gives us enough time and gives staff the flexibility to continue doing that research with some funding available,” Hammill said. The recommended budget also includes no additional city taxpayer funds for the West Main Streetscape and Council is expected to further discuss its future in the coming budget work sessions. “As part of the staff recommendation, just from an affordability standpoint, we’ve taken out any additional funding for West Main and added the [$50 million] school reconfiguration project,” Hammill said. “Absent some real solid direction from Council, we have not made any changes in the CIP and have not changed our position there in the hope that once we get to these work sessions as part of the budget there will be some decisions made.” The first budget work session is Thursday at 4 p.m.  (meeting info)*This afternoon, Louisa officials pledged to make broadband Internet available to every home and business in the county within the next four years. Christian Goodwin is the county administrator who spoke on a live YouTube feed that he acknowledged could not currently be accessed by all who live in Louisa. “Today I am pleased to announce that we are unveiling plans to change that here in Louisa County and that we are developing a blueprint that other localities and providers can follow,” Goodwin said. Louisa will invest $15 million in a partnership with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Firefly Fiber Broadband, and Dominion Energy Virginia. Firefly is a subsidiary of the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative. The funding will help cover constructions costs, and end consumers would pay between $50 and $80 a month for service depending on speed. The first step in the partnership will be an engineering study that will result in a request to the State Corporation Commission for regulatory approval for the service. The goal is to connect half the county by 2023 and full coverage by 2025. Duane Adams is the vice chair of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors. “Today more than ever the digital divide between rural and suburban America has been brought to light by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Adams said. “The inability to access reliable high-speed Internet has impacted our citizens in nearly every area of their life, from education to tele-medicine to the ability to conduct business affairs in a secure environment.”Adams said this would bring about a “generational change” for the county and will also be an economic development tool. Read more in the press release. *Finally today, this week Virginia is set to receive 69,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine for COVID. According to a release sent out Saturday night, the Virginia Department of Health will prioritize this third vaccine to mass vaccination clinics across the Commonwealth. Only one dose is required for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Today the VDH reports another 1,124 new cases based on abou 13,000 tests processed. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out is for Abundant Life Ministries, “working hard to create a better future for the Charlottesville community.”* A mass testing event at the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Facility has resulted in the biggest one-day rise of COVID-19 cases in that county. That’s according to a spokeswoman for the Thomas Jefferson Health District, which reports 41 cases in Fluvanna this morning. “The uptick in Fluvanna County cases is due to point prevalence testing done at the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Facility,” said Kathryn Goodman, spokeswoman for the TJHD.  Overall, the district reported 60 cases today, with 12 from Charlottesville and five from Albemarle. Statewide, there are another 845 cases of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth as reported by the Virginia Department of Health this morning. The statewide seven-day average for positive tests has dropped to 6.9 percent today. UVA reported another four cases yesterday, and their COVID-19 tracker now states that eleven percent of quarantine rooms are in use, up from eight percent the day before. *Governor Ralph Northam pointed to declining positive testing rates statewide as a sign of good news in the pandemic, but urged continued caution yesterday. Last week, Northam ended restrictions in the Hampton Roads such as early closings for restaurants after two and a half weeks of declining positive test rates. “We however continue to keep an eye on some other regions in Virginia,” Northam said. “For example, Southwest Virginia is seeing more new cases per day per on average, 229, than any other region in our state, even Northern Virginia.” Northam said southwest Virginia has fewer hospitals and medical capabilities so the Department of Health is monitoring the situation closely, even with declining positive test rates there. He said the rate was 8.1 percent on Tuesday. The governor urged people to continue following physical and social distancing guidelines, and to wear masks indoors. He also announced that more than half a million people have downloaded the COVIDWISE tracking app. “We estimate that’s around 12 percent of Virginians between ages 18 and 65,” Northam said. The State Corporation Commission has agreed to extend a moratorium on utility cut-offs through October 5. The moratorium had been set to expire at midnight, six months after it was first issued. In a release the SCC indicated there would be no further extension. “The mounting costs of unpaid bills must eventually be paid, either by the customers in arrears or by other customers who themselves may be struggling to pay their bills,” reads the statement.  “Unless the General Assembly explicitly directs that a utility's own shareholders must bear the cost of unpaid bills, those costs will almost certainly be shifted to other paying customers.”“The budget I sent to the legislature includes a moratorium on utility disconnections, a repayment plan structure, and a debt forgiveness program,” Northam said. Yesterday the Virginia Department of Health reported 96 deaths, the result of a data entry backlog. Health Commissioner Norm Oliver commented on this at the press conference.“Occasionally there will be a spike as we have in this number, and that just represents catching up with death certificates which come in much later than what we get from the hospitals,” Oliver said. “If you look at a different graph which is the deaths recorded by the date of death, you’ll get a much better picture of the course of the disease and you’ll see that we had a peak earlier in the year and it has been leveled off and we have been in the low teens for many weeks now.” More from the Governor’s Press Conference will be in the next installment of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. *Early voting season begins this Friday, and Governor Northam said yesterday that the Department of Elections has received 790,000 requests for absentee ballots by mail. Jim Nix is a member of the Charlottesville Electoral Board. “People have been getting the word on voting early either in-person or by mail,” Nix said on the September 15, 2020 edition of C’Ville 360. “We already had as of yesterday morning about 6,500 requests for ballots by mail which is astounding.”Normally in a presidential year we would have fewer than 2,000 through the whole cycle according to Nix. Melissa Morton is Charlottesville’s registrar.“Currently my team is processing and preparing the absentee mail ballots to go out this Friday on September the 18th,” Morton said. “We have approximately 9,000 mail ballots that  will go out.” Morton said a dropbox for absentee or early ballots will be installed this week and social distancing measures are being placed inside her office for anyone who decides to vote in-person. You can watch the rest of the program here. *In meetings today, the Charlottesville Housing Advisory Committee meets at noon and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors meets at 1 p.m.  The latter group has a long day ranging from a discussion of a special exception to the county’s home stay ordinance for a property at 2405 Northfield Road, and an update on long range planning in Albemarle. There are several public hearings in the evening, including a developer’s request to reduce the scope of an intersection onto Route 20 south of Piedmont Virginia Community College. There’s also a renewal of the COVID-19 ordinance passed in late July, and a hearing on a county-initiated amendment of the zoning ordinance to place more restrictions on the use of fill dirt in the rural area.* Before we go today, one small correction from yesterday. All of the PTO’s for Charlottesville city schools have come together to raise funds for supplies for virtual learning, and a press release yesterday announcing a matching opportunity gave the incorrect total raised so far. The actual amount was $56,500 but hopefully by now that figure has increased already! If you want to learn more, click through to the link. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe