Graduation has passed, the kiddies have gone home, and it’s time for another season in Charlottesville: construction season. The first phase of the huge South Lawn project will soon be underway, and to get Valley Road ready, the city Board of Architectural Review (BAR) just approved one of the most elaborately landscaped cul-de-sacs Charlottesville has ever seen.
 Get ready for the 800-pound gorilla. Construction on the “early site package” for the South Lawn project will begin as soon as the graduates step off Grounds. |
Plans for the South Lawn project show the closing of a section of Valley Road, near its intersection with Brandon Avenue, where a cul-de-sac will be built instead. City Council will vote on the road closure next month.
City planner Mary Joy Scala presented designs for the cul-de-sac, which include three young maple trees to replace a large maple that likely won’t survive the construction. She said the circle was modeled after surrounding neighborhood landscaping in the Oakhurst/Gildersleeve area. BAR members joked that, actually, the schmancy landscaping smacked more of a UVA project than the slightly shabby Valley Road.
Nice as it is to look at, Russell Mooney, a Valley Road property owner, voiced concerns that the cul-de-sac wouldn’t be wide enough to accommodate large fire trucks. “If the city says they can, you look at it, and they can’t.” Mooney offered that plans should connect Valley Road to a planned parking lot so as not to dead-end the street.
But Mary V. Hughes, a landscape architect and the project’s community relations contact, says, “The 90-foot diameter complies with the city ordinance regarding cul-de-sacs. We have conferred with the Fire Marshall.”
Still, emergency vehicles will have to use Jefferson Park Avenue as a future access point once the road is closed. The BAR approved the cul-de-sac, provided no parking would be allowed.
The cul-de-sac approval is just one of many steps on the way to dramatic change for that section of JPA. Six houses have already been razed; some were owned by the University, others were purchased for demolition.
“Right after graduation there will be mobilizing for the early site package,” Hughes says. This phase will bring utility lines across JPA, and underground and overhead electrical wires on both sides of the street.
In addition, a bus stop that’s currently behind Cabell Hall will be shifted towards the Brandon Avenue intersection, and a pull-off lane for CTS and UTS buses constructed.
UVA has websites to keep JPA-area neighbors updated on each phase of the South Lawn project. Check in at http://www.virginia.edu/communityrelations/jpa_neighborhood.html.
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