The Charlottesville City Council adopted rates for the city’s three public utilities for the coming fiscal year last month, and the numbers weren’t dire: Water and wastewater rates are up, but they’re offset by a slight drop in gas prices. But two Councilors still aren’t content. Dave Norris and Dede Smith say two fees that [...]
Planning & Development
Toan Nguyen’s C’ville Central gives small business owners a leg up
The movement to buy local is growing beyond homemade jam and freshly picked tomatoes at the City Market. It could be the key to solving the city’s growing poverty problem. The goal of fledgling corporation C’ville Central, the latest brainchild of C’ville Coffee owner Toan Nguyen, is to connect local business owners with the area’s [...]
As dome nears completion, a new chapter begins for Rotunda
Jody Lahendro has led a lot of curious locals up the 61′ of creaking scaffolding that has surrounded UVA’s Rotunda for a year. Most recently, it was a group that had won a private tour at an auction to raise money for the iconic structure’s ongoing renovation. Once the visitors emerged at the lip of [...]
Trivia and Travis
06/18/2013 8:00 pm Trivia and Travis Fellini’s #9, Charlottesville VA
County sees turnaround on capital expansion
When the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted last week to push ahead with a plan to spend $11.8 million to turn an old building supply warehouse into the new home of the Northside Library, it added to a growing list of capital projects planned in the county for the next five to 10 [...]
What’s coming up in Charlottesville and Albemarle the weekend of 4/26?
Community events, activities, and other happenings in Charlottesville and Albemarle this busy spring weekend. Know of something going on that we missed? Add it in the comments section. Don’t miss this season’s first show in the Charlottesville classic Fridays After Five [...]
New library heralds era of growth in Western Albemarle
After years of discussion, planning, and vigorous fundraising, construction of the new Crozet Library, a big step in the effort to expand the town’s downtown area, is nearing completion. The two-story building on Crozet Avenue still smells like sawdust, but the power tools and paint cans will [...]
Monticello’s big gift, shooting indictment, and the Stonefield suit: News briefs
Check c-ville.com daily and pick up a copy of the paper Tuesday to for the latest Charlottesville and Albemarle news briefs and stories. Here’s a quick look at some of what we’ve had an eye on for the past week. Monticello gets $10 million donation The Thomas Jefferson Foundation announced [...]
What’s coming up in Charlottesville and Albemarle the week of 4/15?
Each week, the news team takes a look at upcoming meetings and events in Charlottesville and Albemarle we think you should know about. Consider it a look into our datebook, and be sure to share newsworthy happenings in the comments section. The Charlottesville City Council meets at 7pm today in [...]
End of the road for Rooker, happenings at UVA, and disgruntled homeowners: News briefs
Check c-ville.com daily and pick up a copy of the paper Tuesday to for the latest Charlottesville and Albemarle news briefs and stories. Here’s a quick look at some of what we’ve had an eye on for the past week. Rooker announces retirement from Board of Supervisors During last week’s [...]
Woolen Hills? City Walk development bringing big changes
It’s a few minutes before the lunch rush at Beer Run, and from a table near the front of their restaurant, stepbrothers and co-owners Josh Hunt and John Woodriff can see a line of white contractor’s pickups parked along Carlton Avenue, and behind it, a mountain of red dirt rearing up where just [...]
New suit filed against Stonefield developer
Only days after The Shops at Stonefield developer and Charlottesville City Council came to an agreement that ended a long legal dispute over stormwater management, a new lawsuit has been filed in the Albemarle County Circuit Court that may halt construction of the shopping center’s second [...]
Family continues to fight for cemetery in the path of the Western Bypass
When Erica Caple James visited Charlottesville three years ago, the MIT anthropology professor was here to talk about the cultural impacts of the loss of the bodies of the victims of Haiti’s 1991 coup d’état. Two weeks ago, she was back, again to speak on behalf of the dead. But this time it [...]
HUD report criticizes foundering, divided housing authority
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA) got a thrashing last week with the release of a highly critical report on its operations by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and since then, parties on all sides of the debate over how to fix public [...]
What will it take for Dominion to bury power lines?
Before the end of the winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in central Virginia and put the Commonwealth into a state of emergency last week, 233,000 Dominion Power customers around the state were without electricity in freezing temperatures, including tens of thousands in [...]
Should VDOT reroute the Bypass around graves of slave descendants?
Jesse Scott Sammons was born a free black man in 1853, eight years before the Civil War and 10 years before Emancipation. A descendant of Monticello slave Mary Hemings—sister of Sally—Sammons attended what is now Charlottesville’s Jefferson School. He went on to become the first principal of [...]
What’s in a comprehensive plan?
Few local government topics are as mired in planning jargon—or more likely to cause eyes to glaze over at public meetings—than the revision of a comprehensive plan, the massive guidance document that lays out broad ground rules for a municipality’s growth and development. “It’s sort of this [...]
City makes Section 3 position permanent with eye to moving redevelopment forward
City Council voted unanimously last week to permanently fund its Section 3 coordinator, a previously temporary position that bridges the gap between the city and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Despite differing opinions on where the money should come from, city [...]
Site prep for future Wegmans shopping center scrutinized
Plans for a shopping center with a Wegmans grocery store just south of Charlottesville are marching forward, despite recommendations of caution from staff and the qualms of some neighbors. Last week, the Albemarle County Planning Commission gave its stamp of approval to a special use permit [...]
Martha Jefferson site to welcome new tenant: C’ville biotech firm HemoShear
The former Martha Jefferson Hospital campus stands to get another shot in the arm in the coming weeks. HemoShear, a Charlottesville biotech company that helps drug manufacturers more accurately simulate human environments, said January 22 it plans to become the site’s next tenant. The [...]
What’s coming up in Charlottesville the week of 2/4
Each week, the news team takes a look at upcoming meetings and events in Charlottesville and Albemarle we think you should know about. Consider it a look into our datebook, and be sure to share newsworthy happenings, too. The Charlottesville City Council meets Monday night at 7pm at City Hall. [...]
Charlottesville-Albemarle MPO grows to include Crozet
The Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Policy Board voted unanimously last week to redraw its boundaries to include Crozet, an expansion officials say could mean more federal dollars for public transit linking Western Albemarle to the area’s urban core. Like its [...]
Annual conservation easement numbers dropped in 2012, but PEC has high hopes for this year
Each year, the Piedmont Environmental Council tracks and totals the amount of land put into conservation in the region, and while 2012’s year-end numbers were low, the organization says renewed incentives for easement donation could mean it will see an uptick in the amount of land set aside in [...]

















