What happens when you hold a public hearing and no one comes? If you’re City Council, and you’re considering the sale of city lots on Ridge Street, you hold another one. On September 15, City Council, disappointed by the absence of members of the Fifeville neighborhood, decided to hold a second public hearing at its next meeting to give residents another chance to be heard.
When Council asked if notices for the public hearing were circulated throughout the neighborhood, Chris Engel, Charlottesville’s assistant director of economic development, reported that residents immediately adjacent to the site were given notices, but he wasn’t certain other residents were aware of it. In view of the circumstances, David Brown proposed to hold a second hearing and urged city staff to better inform Fifeville residents.
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The city will hold another public hearing on the sale of these lots to Southern Development because no Fifeville residents showed up to the last one. |
The two city parcels at 521 and 529 Ridge St. combined are approximately a third of an acre. They aren’t contiguous but are part of a 2.8-acre tract of undeveloped land near Downtown, on the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue. The other five parcels are owned by local developer Southern Development. According to the city’s report, the two city lots were conveyed to the city by the Virginia Department of Transportation in 1976 after the department abandoned a project to widen Ridge Street.
Since learning of the possible sale, some residents have vocally opposed it and submitted a petition with about 100 signatures to City Council, asking the city not to decide to sell before a traffic study was completed. When Council solicited proposals from developers in February to honor residents’ concerns, only Southern Development submitted a proposal. Southern Development’s plan calls for 40,000 square feet of commercial space and 40 residential units for the site.
Engel said that the proposed development would add much needed office space in the area, thus “bringing new jobs to the city,” in addition to approximately $325,000 annually in local tax revenue. Southern Development would devote the $253,000 purchase price to an affordable housing fund for Fifeville.
But for some city residents, the loss of green space is the most important and problematic aspect of the proposed design. “We call ourselves a green city and yet I see development in different pockets around the city and I see trees being cut down,” said Colette Hall, a regular at city meetings and the president of the North Downtown Neighborhood Association.
Mayor Dave Norris sympathizes with the desire not to lose green space. But with the housing fund, low-income residents of Fifeville would have money to fix up their homes and remain in their neighborhood.
The next public hearing is slated for the October 6 City Council meeting.
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