To forestall the inevitable confusion of people looking for Market Plaza on Market Street, the future Water Street home of City Market has been renamed West2nd. Under a broiling sun September 8, developer Keith Woodard announced the $50 million mixed-use project’s new moniker. “We’ll still have a market, we’ll still have a plaza at West2nd,” […]
Planning & Development
In brief: Heated exchanges, out-of-jurisdiction chase and more
CPD car chase in Waynesboro An off-duty Charlottesville cop in a squad car spotted an unidentified traffic violation on I-64 the evening of August 13, and pursued the alleged offender to Waynesboro, according to the Newsplex. No arrest was made and no injuries reported. Sweltering in Crescent Halls Nearly two dozen residents showed up at […]
CPC floats four parking scenarios
The parking wars have quieted since a judge rejected the Charlottesville Parking Center’s petition for an emergency receiver June 27 and CPC owner Mark Brown decamped to Greece. But here in the dog days of August, CPC general manager Dave Norris, whose June 24 proposal was rebuffed by the city, offers four scenarios for settling […]
Developing their future: Friendship Court residents want more say
A group of Friendship Court residents is pushing back against redevelopment plans, calling for more inclusion as developers move forward with attempts to revamp downtown Charlottesville’s largest subsidized housing neighborhood. The Piedmont Housing Alliance announced last fall that it was [...]
Parking garage ‘soap opera’ leads city to reject Brown’s offer
Mayor Mike Signer and City Councilor Kathy Galvin insist there is nothing personal in the city’s dispute with Mark Brown over control of the Water Street Parking Garage. In meetings with reporters July 6 after the city rejected Charlottesville Parking Center’s June [...]
The Power Issue
Discussions for this year’s list of the most powerful in Charlottesville turned not toward one particular person but an entity that truly affects Charlottesvillians’ daily lives—the Virginia Department of Transportation. Don’t worry, you’ll still see some familiar faces (last year’s [...]
Elevated space: Inside Oliver’s Treehouse
Oliver Kuttner doesn’t do bland. And he doesn’t like building the same thing over and over. His latest project, the Treehouse on the corner of Garrett and Second SE streets, is testament to that. “I wanted to do a small building,” he says. “I wanted to make that corner interesting.” The [...]
City lawyer: Condemnation of Water Street Garage has begun
How many lawyers does it take to schedule a hearing? Well, if it has anything to do with the highly contentious battle between the city and Mark Brown’s Charlottesville Parking Center, that would be five attorneys in Charlottesville Circuit Court today to set a date for CPC’s [...]
Escalation clause: City threatens eminent domain of Water Street Garage
In this week’s episode of Charlottesville v. Mark Brown over the Water Street Parking Garage, the city makes an offer to buy Brown’s shares of the garage. If he declines, it plans to initiate eminent domain proceedings, according to the city’s outside attorney. “For months Mark Brown has been [...]
Stopped light: Long wait at downtown signal triggers questions
On Water Street, buses regularly back up at a traffic light at Third Street SE that has the Water Street Parking Garage on one side and a half street dead-ending on the Downtown Mall on the other. Water Street traffic can idle at this light for nearly a minute, by this reporter’s count. The [...]
Reservoir reservations: Critics still question Ragged Mountain plan
Perhaps nothing this century has shaken the Charlottesville area more than the drought of 2002, when carwashes closed, restaurants served on paper plates and the water supply was within 60 days of running out. And perhaps nothing has divided the community more than the multi-year battle waged [...]
Preserving the past: Local woman wants to keep historic buildings standing
In Charlottesville, an ordinance exists to protect historic properties, but in Albemarle County, there’s no such luck. And one woman is hoping to save three old buildings on a county farm that was in her family for several generations. Andrew Jackson Dawson served in the 5th Virginia Cavalry [...]
Bank of America to close downtown branch
Bank of America is closing its location on the Downtown Mall February 17, branch customers learned by letter April 20. “What, we’re closing?” a teller there asked this morning when she heard a colleague inform a customer on the phone. Built in 1916, the structure was [...]
Density issue: Big apartments near Little High chafe residents
While official Charlottesville has embraced greater density and infill, some residents aren’t loving it, particularly when the density is happening in their neighborhood. That’s the case for plans for 124 units in the East Jefferson Apartments between 10th and 11th streets on a site that [...]
Future focus: What’s in store for Charlottesville?
What does the future hold? We examine what has happened in Charlottesville’s past and present to make some zany predictions about what could occur years down the road. But you know what they say: Fact is stranger than fiction. Developing our future Growth is always an issue in both [...]
How to spend $162 million: The city’s budget increases 3.5 percent
Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 to City Council on March 7. The $161,871,784 budget is a 3.5 percent increase over 2016’s fiscal year budget, which was approved at $156,391,435. The latest budget is Jones’ sixth version. “The biggest [...]
Nightmare on Water Street
Utilities relocation for Market Plaza had already closed the eastbound lane on Water Street and detoured traffic to South Street and Second Street SE, and when Second Street was also closed last week, many who park in the Water Street Garage were trapped in an extraordinarily long exit line [...]
Old and new: West Main complex keeps Blue Moon Diner
A new apartment complex is in the works for West Main, but the Board of Architectural Review has already ruled out tearing down some of the street’s oldest buildings to accommodate the building. Developer Jeff Levien says he would prefer to demolish Blue Moon Diner and the next-door convenience [...]
Mayor doesn’t rule out condemning Landmark
The skeletal Landmark Hotel officially went from eyesore to public safety hazard last week when a beam went through the roof of next-door CVS. “Debris blew off the building and could have killed someone,” said Mayor Mike Signer on “Wake-Up Call” January 17. The city closed the area around the [...]
Welcome to the club: Common House takes over former Mentor Lodge space
The space for a 7,000-square-foot private club on West Market Street was purchased in 2013, and what plans call a “brick and mortar establishment” may be one step closer to becoming a reality. A joint public hearing between Charlottesville City Council and the City Planning Commission was held [...]
New leases signed at 5th Street Station
A real estate firm out of Virginia Beach has signed five leases at 5th Street Station, a soon-to-be 465,000-square-foot shopping center on Fifth Street. The 72-acre space has already promised a Wegmans, but thanks to the 66,900 square feet Divaris Real Estate has signed off on, locals can now [...]
Up and over: Why some are begging for a bridge
Route 250, deemed a traffic nightmare by drivers of the 32,000 cars that travel it daily, virtually splits residential neighborhoods on one side and businesses on the other. Some think the next step for Albemarle should be building a walkway across the busy highway—because most pedestrians fear [...]
Construction crews prepare for the Blade
Signs and sandwich boards on the historic Downtown Mall may soon be outshone by the reinstallation of a much anticipated, 33-foot sign at the Paramount Theater. As the theater celebrates its 10th anniversary of reopening, construction crews prepare to bring back the Blade—a $175,000 project to [...]