Thread by @socialistdogmom

tonight’s charlottesville city council agenda packet is here: charlottesville.org/home/showdocum…

wonder how that 90 minute closed session about “personnel” and “legal consultation” went. there have been a significant number of resignations since dr richardson came on as city manager.

mayor walker is on the dais but we’re still missing four councilors and the city manager.

starting off ten minutes late, which feels much more normal! we’d been starting on time lately and that just felt weird.

i love to see city council candidates attending council meetings! it isn’t as common as you might think. sena magill is here, listening & also sewing patches on her daughter’s girl scout sash. (extremely wholesome content)

no takers on public comment on any consent agenda item & no councilor wants to remove any items. it passes as written unanimously.

dr richardson again says he has no response to the public from the last meeting. that’s the second meeting in a row where he just has nothing to say to people who made comments at the last meeting. i don’t like that.

he does want to remind people about the 90 pilot of the altered trolley route, though.

nbc29.com/story/41146334…

moving right along to public comment. first speaker manages the food & agriculture programs at IRC. “affordable living, which includes healthy affordable food, is a human right,” she says.

next commenter is involved with several boards & orgs that deal with homelessness and affordable housing. she urges council to put the year end surplus into the affordable housing fund (a possibility they were exploring during budget season)

https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1112875069657808897?s=21

this commenter says her entire extended family has been forced out of charlottesville by the rising cost of living. “it wasn’t because we wanted to leave, but because no matter how many jobs we had, no matter how hard we worked,” wages aren’t keeping up with housing costs.

“we feed you, we clean up after your messes, we take care of your children, it’s people like me that make charlottesville one of america’s best cities to live in,” but low income families aren’t able to survive here.

“charlottesville is my home. this is where i grew up. this is where i built my family. this is my home. i want to be able to stay.” her family has lived in public housing for four generations but affordable home ownership is the real answer.

the next speaker says she is the first habitat for humanity homeowner in charlottesville. “all i could do was cry,” when she found out she’d been chosen for the program. she is a single mother of two sons. “having a home meant my kids had a safe yard to play in.”

having a home gave her sons stability. they’re grown now and doing well for themselves. she’s fully paid off her habitat home now.

mary carey up now thanking council for the trolley route change. she says people were very excited about the change.

next speaker encourages council to support a strong police civilian review board with independent investigatory power.
“make it strong, supported, independent, and able to investigate!”
she asks what the next steps & timeline are.

city attorney john blair says they intend to have a draft ordinance on the CRB for council to have a first reading of at the next council meeting.

this speaker says she hopes to raise a family here & send her kids to the same city schools she grew to attending, but “without affordable home ownership options, it’s not gonna happen”

tanesha thanks council for the trolley change, asks council to add a baby changing station to restrooms in city hall, agrees with funding the CRB, and says council should stand by chief brackney (who is under fire for statements she made about gun control)

“nobody protected her for saying that,” tanesha scolds council. “y’all shoulda stood behind her.” she points out the several council members have made similar remarks about assault weapons.

nbc29.com/story/41131561…

mayor walker says most of the signatures on the petition are not from local residents. “it’s not something that i took seriously. i agree with the statements that she made and we knew she was going to make them.”

galvin, who is working on the city’s legislative packet, says the city’s position on assault weapons will be clear in our requests to the general assembly.

next speaker is council candidate sena magill (though she’s just speaking as a resident of the tenth and page neighborhood). she says residents have requested an audible pedestrian signal at preston and rose hill.

mental health advocacy activist myra anderson has some words for council about mental health awareness & the ways the mental health field is biased against african americans.

“we cannot do that healing when the same people who oppressed us are the ones we are supposed to talk to,” myra says about the lack of black mental health professionals

back from recess & talkin’ ‘bout a sewer easement

city council candidate michael payne used the easement public hearing to sneak in a public comment about an agenda item with no public hearing. he urged council to take seriously the concerns of the first baptist church re: the west main street special use permit.

no actual takers for public comment on the sewer easement. it’s just a first reading & will go on a future consent agenda.

the planning commission recommended approval (4-2) of this special use permit. it would allow up to 120 residential units where university tire is now

galvin asks what the formula says about parking requirements. it’s in the parking modified zone, so it only requires one parking space per unit (as opposed to 2 spots per multi bedroom units). not all spots are required to be onsite.

“parking in that area is a challenge,” mayor walker says. the planning commission added a condition of 53 on-site parking spaces.

someone speaking on behalf of the applicant says 53 on-site parking spaces is not feasible for the project. he says they aim to provide a minimum of 40 spaces.... but if required to provide more, they will? (ok but the requirement now is 53 and you said you can’t do that??)

he keeps talking about a draft agreement to lease parking spaces at the jefferson school but an employee at the jefferson school tells me no such agreement has been made. that seems uhhh very relevant to this conversations.

just quickly googled the difference between a “floor plate” and a “floor plan” because he keeps saying “floor plate” and i keep hearing “foreplay” 😳

quora.com/What-is-the-di…

a slightly modified version of the special use permit passed 4-1 with nikuyah dissenting.

on to the next agenda item - a special use permit for a sorority house on rugby road.

https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1171545829716496384?s=21

hill said several councilors have already seen this presentation (it was given at a joint session of council and the planning commission) so they moved straight to a vote & it was approved unanimously.

a breakdown of CAHF funding requests starts on page 166 of the agenda packet

charlottesville.org/home/showdocum…

the crossings II could end chronic homelessness in charlottesville as it currently exists

hill asks what happens if one of the projects falls through, what is the process for un-allocating these funds?
john blair said that if a project falls through, the funds don’t get allocated. the HAC subcommittee would make a new recommendation to council for the funds.

the CAHF allocations passed unanimously. moving on to a presentation about food equity!

shantell & jeanette from the charlottesville food justice network start off their presentation with a moment of silence for two women, one whose name i missed (sorry!) and holly edwards.

the full text of the food equity initiative report starts on page 261 of the agenda packet

charlottesville.org/home/showdocum…

16.7% of charlottesville residents are food insecure. that’s one in six people in this “world class city” who don’t always have enough nutritious food to eat.

the charlottesville food justice network is a coalition of more than 30 community organizations working to build a healthy and just community food system.
cvillefoodjustice.org/about.html

“this is a great report and i think i would have less complaints about nonprofits and funding for them if we received more reports like this,” mayor walker says about the food justice network’s comprehensive report.

she also compliments the extensive and well-received community outreach and engagement they’ve done.
“i think every nonprofit should look at this as a model,” mayor walker tells shantell & jeanette.

shantell says the community leaders she worked with are people she knows, members of the community she engages with outside of the scope of this work. this work cannot be done by just anyone.

an off cycle appropriation of funding they’d need to secure a federal grant that requires matching funds will be on a november council agenda.

the last agenda item is a presentation from mike murphy about the estimated costs of implementing the recommendations about establishing an office of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

wes is reading a resolution to authorize the city attorney to appeal the court’s decision in the monument case. it passes unanimously to applause only from me.

meeting adjourned!