After years of sluggish growth, a string of new projects is poised to transform West Main Street from an underutilized row of dead buildings into a thriving retail corridor. A new annex to the bustling Main Street Market is now home to restaurants and shops, and there are plans for an eight-story hotel at the […]
Planning & Development
What’s coming up in Charlottesville the week of 10/15
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, too. The Charlottesville City Council holds its regular third-Monday meeting today at 6pm. The consent agenda includes appropriations […]
Young architects take on income gap with Green Dot job hub project
An architect’s challenge usually hinges on the limits of space and scale, but a team of young Virginia professionals has spent the last nine months tackling a very different task: closing Charlottesville’s income gap. The Emerging Leaders in Architecture program, run by the Virginia chapter of the American Institute of Architects, gives young people in […]
Is another fight over agricultural land use brewing in Keswick?
The Albemarle County Planning Commission voted 5-1 last night to approve an annual cider festival and new regulations at Castle Hill Cider, a 600-acre property in Keswick—a place where businesses and residents have clashed over agricultural land use in the past. Like other “farm [...]
What’s coming up in Charlottesville the week of 10/8
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. On Tuesday, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission holds a [...]
City Council’s Moto Saloon vote overturns compromise
When the Charlottesville City Council denied a live music permit for Matteus Frankovich’s Black Market Moto Saloon property near the Woollen Mills neighborhood on Monday, the move came as something of a surprise to those who had worked to reach a compromise between the bar owner and local [...]
County considers scaling back cell tower regulations to improve coverage
Among the things Albemarle County likes to claim it’s known for, its cell tower ordinance is probably the most unlikely point of pride. The county’s long-standing regulations are credited with forcing wireless structures to keep a low profile, and they’ve been duplicated by other jurisdictions. [...]
What’s coming up in Charlottesville the week of 10/1
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 at 7pm Monday in Council chambers. [...]
Bypass forum draws hundreds
Hundreds of local residents packed the cafeteria at Jack Jouett Middle School Thursday night for VDOT’s public information forum on its environmental assessment of the long-planned Western Bypass around Charlottesville, lining up to leave written or dictated comments on the controversial [...]
Notes from the news desk: What’s coming up in Charlottesville the week of 9/24
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. Charlottesville Area Transit holds a public meeting from 7 to 9pm tonight [...]
Moto Saloon wins initial approval for live music
Matteus Frankovich said all he wants to do is give back to the city he lives in, but intricate zoning laws and unhappy neighbors have made it difficult for him to do so. Woolen Mills residents have complained that his restaurant, the Black Market Moto Saloon, is detrimental to the neighborhood, [...]
This week in Charlottesville: What’s coming up the week of 9/10
Each week, the news team will be taking 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. Both the city and county Planning Commissions meet Tuesday at 6 [...]
Soundboard 9/7: The week’s top news in a live radio format
Each week, the C-VILLE news team joins reporters from Charlottesville Tomorrow at WTJU 91.1 FM’s on-Grounds radio station for Soundboard, an hour-long, straight-from-the-source news show that touches on the big stories of the week. This week’s program included an interview with the [...]
Soundboard, Aug. 31: On the radio with C-VILLE
Each week, the C-VILLE news team joins reporters from Charlottesville Tomorrow at WTJU 91.1 FM’s on-Grounds radio station for a straight-from-the-source news show that touches on the big stories of the week. Last Friday’s topics included UVA President Teresa Sullivan’s town [...]
City approves master plan for east side of McIntire Park
It’s been over a year in the making, and City Council finally voted on it: the master plan for the eastern side of McIntire Park. Citizens have shown up for meeting after meeting to express concerns about golf, gardens, soccer fields, and skate parks, and after several presentations and [...]
The wonder years: How real estate and gentrification changed Belmont for good
“One big problem is change. [The older residents] don’t understand change is happening and why it’s happening, and sometimes I don’t understand it myself.” – Jimmy Dettor, lifelong Belmont resident. From the documentary, Still Life With Donuts. When she arrived in Charlottesville in the summer [...]
Alternative septic in Albemarle County: new technology, new worries
A slightly abridged version of this story appears in the August 28 issue of C-VILLE. As always, there’s more that we wanted to tell—and we’re glad we can offer it here. —Graelyn Brashear What to do with wastewater has long been a limiting factor in rural development. If space or [...]
Editor’s Note: Gentrification, poison, and country living
The poison and the antidote were anciently understood to be of the same substance, so that the word pharmakon was used in Greek to name both toxin and treatment. The Asclepian medical symbol employs the image of the snake, a reminder of the principle underlying healing practices, which [...]
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter is popular here, but does the model hold up?
Use of the crowdfunding site Kickstarter is booming in Charlottesville, and it’s no wonder. The website was created in 2008 as a low-risk fundraising platform for creative projects, and it’s been embraced with a good deal of success here, where indie-minded artists and musicians—and those [...]
Officials pull the plug on live music in Woolen Mills
Editor’s note: We used comments in this story that we later realized were shared privately via Facebook—which means we shouldn’t have run them. We talked with the person affected and apologized, and this post came out of that conversation. Please give it a read. City officials have [...]
Stonefield developer will keep fighting permit violation from city
A cross-jurisdictional fight over storm-water runoff has pitched one developer against another, and city and county are taking sides as the dispute appears headed for court. Edens, the developers of Stonefield, a 65-acre shopping center underway at the intersection of Route 29 and Hydraulic [...]
City of Promise settles in
The next round of federal funding for City of Promise is up in the air, but it looks like the cradle-to-college outreach program that came to Charlottesville’s low-income neighborhoods a few months ago is here to stay. Director Sarad Davenport’s team of staff and community members is growing, [...]
Bypass opponents study plans, await environmental assessment
After decades of controversy and an unexpected revival, the Route 29 bypass project hit a key milestone earlier this month with the Virginia Department of Transportation’s release of contractor Skanska-Branch’s [...]