Police use video in investigations

How much do we want to be watched? With the city putting out a request for proposals for video surveillance cameras on the Downtown Mall and working on red-light cameras at intersections, the question of how far Charlottesville is willing to go in the name of public safety grows larger. We’re watched everyday, at ATMs, […]

Two teens arrested for beating

Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo was clearly upbeat just before a news conference July 27. He had reason to be. The night before, police had arrested two 15-year-old males in connection with an assault near the Grove Street area of the Roosevelt Brown Boulevard that had the markings of other assaults that have occurred Downtown. […]

Big-box retail on southern horizon

As outrage mellows to acceptance during the development review process, only the dedicated opponents continue to pipe up at public meetings. On July 24, the Albemarle County Planning Commission considered rezoning 87 acres just north of I-64 for a big-box shopping center. While in the past citizens for and against the project have shown up, […]

Can Friendship Court be redeveloped?

Surrounded by boutique shops and restaurants to the north, condos to the south, and the new Downtown ACAC just across the street to its west, Friendship Court anchors a rapidly changing neighborhood. Charles Martin is the executive director of Urban Vision, which provides residential services at low-income housing complexes. He knows Friendship Court sits on […]

Wood's building beyond NGIC's stated needs

When developer Wendell Wood of United Land Corporation addressed the county Planning Commission at their July 10 meeting, he said that the client that would lease the 180,000 square feet of office space and the 120-unit apartment building would be the government, presumably on behalf of the adjacent National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC). C-VILLE did […]

Hollymead might actually get mixed-use

Hollymead Town Center might well get its, well, town center. Of the five areas of Hollymead, two areas are almost all commercial and two are almost all residential. Only Area A-2, as it’s known in the planning process, is truly designed to be mixed-use, with 1,222 residential units and 364,000 square feet of commercial space. […]

Housing fund comes to light

The item on the consent agenda for City Council’s July 30 meeting doesn’t seem to warrant much notice: "Appropriation: $439,000—Transfer from Housing Initiatives Fund to Piedmont Housing Alliance/Habitat for Humanity." At every meeting, money, much of it in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, gets shuffled into and out of city coffers, and Council this […]

City Calls out county over MCP

Charlottesville City Councilor Kevin Lynch admits that building a road is, in his words, "like getting your teeth drilled." As the Meadowcreek Parkway (MCP) moves nearer to a construction date, he’s wondering why the city is the only one with dentist appointments. When deciding whether to grant easements for the Meadowcreek Parkway, City Council has […]