Commissioner Emory
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Bill Emory is possibly the only person appointed to the Planning Commission who’s ever sued the city. The Woolen Mills shutterbug and gadfly found out he’d been named to the Charlottesville Planning Commission Monday night as he watched the City Council meeting on public access channel 10. “I didn’t even get interviewed,” he says, although he concedes that he tried twice before to get on the advisory body.

Earlier this year, Emory withdrew his lawsuit against the city for a clerical error that removed a historically protected designation off most of a parcel in Woolen Mills, a botched rezoning case that came to be known as “taking by typo.”

Long an activist in Woolen Mills, he also was instrumental in getting the composting of sewage at the nearby Moore’s Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which he called “the mother of all outhouses,” moved. Earlier this year, he got the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority to commit an additional $5.2 million to contain the stink. Emory quietly supported the breaching of the Woolen Mills dam, and worked to get the old mill community listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.

Now Emory will be sitting on the other side of the table. “I really feel like it’s where the rubber meets the road,” he says, vowing to be guided by “good zoning principles.”

He takes the seat of Hosea Williams, and his four-year term starts September 1. “I go to all the meetings anyway,” says Emory. “I have a lot of respect for the people on there. I travel all over on a bike. I love this town. Charlottesville is a unique and wonderful place and could certainly use some planning.”

Comments(14)

A month after promising to quickly seek dredging proposals, the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority revealed today that it’s letting the dredging process wait for guidance from a task force led by an adamant dredging opponent.

“This is so obviously an exercise in futility,” says dredging fan Betty Mooney. “The task force is to keep us from knowing the cost of dredging in time to make it part of our water supply.”

Authority director Tom Frederick, who on June 23 was touting an “ambitious” July 8 start date for issuing a request for proposals (RFP), revealed Monday, July 28, at the board’s monthly meeting that the process was stalled by order of the four local water bosses. He said today the officials decided June 30 to hold back the RFP until the task force could guide it.

“It’s not out on the street,” Frederick said of the RFP. “I did poll the individuals (more)

Comments(21)

As the city and county swing away at the pending construction of the $15 million Piedmont YMCA on the west side of McIntire Park, a large portion of the park’s users are hearing the call, “Strike three, you’re out.” After decades of Park use, has Charlottesville’s softball community been forgotten?

The ground lease agreement and the recently approved McIntire Park master plan includes three crucial factors: the recreation center is to be built on the area currently housing the park’s shelters; the Y’s design includes a pool to be used by Charlottesville High School and other competitive swim programs; the two existing softball fields are to be converted into rectangular athletic fields. It’s the latter proviso that has caused an uproar among the area’s softball community.

“McIntire Park is one of the best places in town for softball,” softball player Richard Ward says. “Now, they’re creating soccer fields for the nouveau riche, the upper middle class.” (more)

Comments(25)

On Tuesday the Board of Architectural Review discussed the proposed Downtown Mall renovation and touched on an issue that could be of interest to foodies and restaurant owners. The MMM Design Group, the company contracted by the City to spearhead the proposed $7.5 million project scheduled to begin at the end of the year, wants to install permanent borders for outdoor cafe and restaurant seating. They suggested that current borders are too “loosely” defined, and proposed installing “inserts” that would accommodate removable bollards directly on the Mall’s surface. They also suggested that three or four bollard designs could be ordered so that restaurants owners could have a choice.

Of course, that raised a bunch of questions the BAR was neither prepared nor empowered to answer. How do you decide how much space a restaurant gets? Who would own and maintain the bollards? In addition, one BAR member reminded those present that Lawrence Halprin, who originally designed the Mall– and whose original design MMM has promised to remain faithful to–was essentially an “old hippie” whose intent was to “preserve the spontaneity of the Mall.”

New bar… nine stories up!

Oh, the BAR also approved some sort of “screen” for the penthouse to be built atop the 9-story Landmark Hotel, currently under construction on the Mall, and it was revealed that the penthouse will include a rooftop bar with views of the mountains. Now that’s a B-A-R review we can get excited about!

Comments(17)

The Young Men’s Shop, formerly YMS Clothiers Ltd. (and even more formerly the Young Men’s Shop), has quietly returned to its former stomping grounds, the Downtown Mall.

A venerable gentleman’s emporium, the Young Men’s Shop— and owner Harry Marshall (pictured at left)— have moved into a building most recently housing the Mole Hole in an attempt to woo a larger customer base and revive slumping sales that resulted from the shop’s move to Seminole Square shopping center over ten years ago.

“Most people felt we shouldn’t have changed the name and shouldn’t have left the Downtown Mall– I disagree,” Marshall says. “We left when we should have, (more)

Comments(5)

Virginia National Bank, the Charlottesville-based “community” banking company, opened its fourth Charlottesville branch today, a grand brick enormity alongside Route 250 in Pantops. VNB President Glenn Rust and branch manager Dan Goodall (pictured at left) celebrated the office’s ribbon cutting ceremony among Charlottesville’s financial elite and community members.

“Charlottesville is a town with a good, stable base of growth and is a close-knit community that desires local approach,” Goodall says. “VNB is providing superior banking services with an emphasis on relationship, service and flexibility.”

The growth and success of VNB, which originally opened its first office on the Downtown Mall in 1998, could indicate a desire in Charlottesville for locally owned and operated services. With this new branch, Rust says he hopes to (more)

Comments(1)

Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport officials– including the lawyer for an environmental group once known for free-market solutions– appear eager to downplay any role the Airport might play in dredging that could save the silt-choked Rivanna Reservoir even as entrepreneurs point to successful dredge-built runways in other cities.

Airport Commission member Gregory Edwards paid a personal visit to Airport director Barbara Hutchinson in late February to talk about dredging after a citizen had suggested that dredging could save millions of dollars for water customers as well as the Airport, according to documents obtained by the Hook in a Freedom of Information request.

In a February 21 email to Airport board member and dredging opponent Gary O’Connell, Hutchinson noted that Edwards had paid her a personal visit to explain that “it was not appropriate to include the Airport (more)

Comments(4)

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, developer Lee Danielson (bottom left) has returned to the Downtown Mall, but this time he’s brought a few wealthy and glamorous friends.

“It wasn’t easy to get this started,” said Danielson, following today’s groundbreaking for The Landmark Hotel (once Hotel Charlottesville, then the Landmark, then The Beacon, now the Landmark again), a $30 million 9-story luxury hotel scheduled to open in July 2009. “It’s difficult to get people to believe in Charlottesville if they’re not from Charlottesville.”

Presumably, then, it wasn’t that hard to get Cnet founder Halsey Minor (upper left) to believe. Minor, owner and major investor in the project, was born in Charlottesville, and at today’s ceremony he recalled his hometown roots.

“This is more of a family reunion than a groundbreaking,” he told the small crowd of local luminaries and press folks, including mayor Dave Norris, vice-mayor Julian Taliaferro, John Paul Jones Arena manager Larry Wilson, and mega-developer Hunter Craig.

Minor recalled buying his first baseball glove at Downtown Athletic, and told the story of his great-great grandfather, John B. Minor, one of the first law professors at UVA, who, Minor said, convinced an advancing Confederate army not to burn UVa to the ground.

“It was one of the first extraordinary acts of preservation,” he said.

Like his great-great granddaddy, Minor says he wants to preserve Charlottesville’s history–with style.

“There won’t be any sappy busts of the three presidents in the lobby,” he said. “We want to call attention to Charlottesville’s history with humor and elegance.”

Indeed, the Landmark’s principle architect Neil Bhatt, of NBJ Architecture (it appears that Danielson’s old chum, architect Mark Hornberger and his firm Hornberger/Worstell were dropped, but Bhatt says they will “carry over the same theme.” Hmm….we wonder what the BAR might think of that, considering how impressed they were with Hornberger’s designed when they approved it), says the black marble facade will be preserved and that the remaining facades will blend in with the downtown architecture.

The 100-key hotel will also include a restaurant and bar, a state-of-the-art meeting place, and a rooftop terrace.

“It’s an urban project, so there are a lot of complexities,” says Bhatt, whose firm specializes in designing hotels. “It’s a very tight site.”

But Bhatt predicts the building will, indeed, become a landmark. “The light boxes on the top floor will glow at night,” he says. In addition, the large open-air terrace on the Mall side will be “great for wedding parties and other events,” he says.

As for the interior, Minor and Danielson have brought along designer-to-the-stars Michael Smith, famous for decorating the homes of Cindy Crawford, Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Introducing mayor Norris, Minor quipped that he had a “natural prejudice against mayors,” but assured the crowd that “this one was wonderful.”

Norris said the construction of the hotel would be a new “renaissance” for the the Mall. Later, he told the Hook that “anytime you bring something like this downtown, it can only help.”

Indeed, “rebirth” appeared to be a talking point.

“It will be a catalyst for the continuing growth of downtown Charlottesville,” Minor told the Hook. “It will make retailers more confident if they have the hotel here, bringing people downtown,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a rebirth of the area.”

“It was a chance to do something interesting in Charlottesville,” Minor responded when asked why he teamed up with Danielson. “I wouldn’t have done this anywhere else in the country.”

“You can’t imagine how it feels to be starting this,” Danielson told the Hook. “I was wondering if it was ever going to happen.”

Wearing hard hats and wielding golden shovels, Danielson, Minor, and Norris mugged for the cameras and assumed the digging position. However, Danielson’s hardhat appeared to be a little too tight.

“I guess I have a bigger head than I’ve been told,” he joked.

Comments(4)

Last night, City Councilors expressed shock that the Florida-based consultant hired to to study the so-called Eastern Connector, a road proposed to link Pantops with Route 29, had recommended chopping right through the city instead of some hoped-for alignments through Albemarle County terrain.

“There’s been a little bump in the road,” Mayor Dave Norris told fellow Councilors as he revealed that the half-million-dollar study (half paid by the City) produded a report last week whose alternatives all run through the City.

“If you look at the numbers,” City planning chief Jim Tolbert told Council, “the Eastern Connector probably could have a place as the most important road that could be built to relieve traffic in Charlottesville, but there’s nowhere to put it. The County has allowed development to occur (more)

Comments(3)