Second Street closure irks restaurant owners

About 20 years ago, the plan to open Second Street and have traffic cross the Downtown Mall brought dire predictions the pedestrian mall would be ruined. Two weeks ago, the street closed with virtually no notice, and restaurant owners are making dire predictions that they’ll be ruined. Martin Horn Construction got a permit to close […]

Bell budget amendment aims to put Route 29 projects on hold

Albemarle Delegate Rob Bell has proposed a state budget amendment that would put plans for a major overhaul of Route 29’s Rio Road intersection on hold and subject them to further scrutiny. The $80 million stoplight-eliminating, grade-separated interchange is part of a package of improvements planned for the highway’s congested Albemarle stretch. The updates, which […]

To drip or not to drip: Old-school advice in new-construction apartments?

Anton Largiader lives down the road from Treesdale Apartments on East Rio Road. He watched the 88-unit affordable housing being built in 2009, and when he saw a “freeze warning” sign in December—before temperatures plunged in January—advising tenants to leave their faucets dripping, “I was astonished,” he said. “This is like out of the ’70s.” […]

Tall order: Market Plaza plans move forward

The decision to grant permits for a nine-story Water Street office and apartment building that will be home to the City Market is now in the hands of the City Council. Developers Gregory Powe and Keith Woodard’s Market Plaza concept was selected by Council in June, one of multiple proposals for the redevelopment of the […]

Mind the gap: Vandals frustrate Corner fence project

The city built it, and still they come. A 7-foot metal fence now stretches along more than 1,000 feet of railroad track from the 14th Street train trestle on the Corner north beyond the end of Elliewood Avenue, a barrier built with $385,000 in Federal Highway Administration funds. That is, it would stretch that length, […]

Route 29 panel urges VDOT to include bike and pedestrian plans

The Virginia Department of Transportation is on track to begin $230 million worth of road projects along Route 29. According to a state mandate, all four components of the plan, dubbed the Route 29 Solutions, must be completed within the next three years. But as the long-anticipated alternative to the Western Bypass moves forward, stakeholders […]

New Ragged Mountain Dam gets a ribbon cutting

Elected officials, members of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA), and environmental leaders were among the crowd of locals that gathered atop the newly completed Ragged Mountain Dam last Thursday to celebrate the official opening of a controversial project that Charlottesville mayor Satyendra Huja called “the most significant infrastructure achievement in this community in […]