Category: Charlottesville Tomorrow

Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Brian Wheeler joins Coy Barefoot each Tuesday to talk about growth and development issues in the area surrounding Charlottesville. This week the topics of conversation include the Eastern Connector, why secondary road projects like Georgetown Road improvements take so long, a “sobering update” on the drought, the latest on the proposed Regional Transportation Authority, expansion at the University of Virginia’s Fontaine Research Park, and the amount of recent commercial development in the region.

The public will get two chances to weigh in on three potential routes for the Eastern Connector. The first will be tonight at 7:00 PM (11/28/07) at Baker-Butler Elementary and the second will be on Thursday (11/29/07) in the Albemarle County Office Building.

Brian Wheeler is the executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, and was recently re-elected to the Albemarle County School Board. With the election out of the way, Brian will be rejoining Coy Barefoot every week on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to talk about growth and development issues. The first thing discussed this week: how growth issues affected the race for the Board of Supervisors. Democrat Ann Mallek defeated incumbent Republican David Wyant for the White Hall seat, while Republican Ken Boyd defeated his challenger Marcia Joseph by 146 votes.

“The 3-3 balance or stalemate, depending on how you look at it, is now broken and potentially on a lot of issues, there’s a 4-2 majority with Ann Mallek coming on board,” Brian said. The new supervisor will be sworn in on January 1st.

On October 23, 2007, the three candidates for the Scottsville District on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors appeared at a candidate forum co-sponsored by the Free Enterprise Forum and Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Democratic incumbent Lindsay Dorrier and independent challengers Kevin Fletcher and Denny King answered ten questions on land use, transportation, and growth in the County. The candidates also answered several questions submitted by members of the audience, ranging from ground water quality, the ethics of meeting with developers privately, and the amount of time it takes per week to serve on the Board of Supervisors.

For a full write-up on this event as well as video, visit Charlottesville Tomorrow

The five candidates for three open seats on the Charlottesville City Council participated in a forum on October 3rd and answered questions about transportation, affordable living choices, and City-County cooperation. The event, which was held in Council Chambers, was co-moderated by Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum and Sean Tubbs of Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Visit Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Election Watch 2007 website for even more detailed information on the candidates including, bios, campaign finance reports, other videos and podcasts, and the schedule of upcoming candidate forums. A full transcript of this candidate forum is also available.

Brian Wheeler is the executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, an organization dedicated to covering local government on the issues of land use, transportation and community design. Brian is a regular guest on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about what’s happening in the area.

In this pre-election installment, Brian has updates on various transportation projects in the area such as the Hillsdale Connector and the Eastern Connector. Additionally, Charlottesville Tomorrow is covering the races for the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Brian breaks down the candidates. Visit their Election Watch page for complete coverage of the races, including audio and video podcasts. In this podcast, Brian also plays clips from the City Council candidates forum recently held by the Greenbrier neighborhood association. There’s also an update on the Board of Supervisor’s recent deliberation and stalemate over rural protection ordinances, and of course, Brian has the audio.

On October 2, 2007, the two candidates for the White Hall District of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors met at a Candidates Forum sponsored by Charlottesville Tomorrow and the Free Enterprise Forum. Republican David Wyant and Democrat Ann Mallek answered ten questions on land use, transportation, and growth in the County. The candidates also answered several questions submitted by members of the audience. The event, held at Henley Middle School in Crozet, was co-moderated by Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum and Sean Tubbs of Charlottesville Tomorrow.

For more on this story, visit Charlottesville Tomorrow.

On September 13, 2007, the Crozet Community Association hosted a candidate forum for the two candidates seeking the White Hall seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. About 60 residents gathered in the Crozet Fire Station to hear David Wyant (R) and Ann Mallek (D) present their campaign platforms. The forum was moderated by David Wayland, President of the Crozet Community Association.The format of the forum was such that each candidate had fifteen minutes to make a presentation followed by a five minute rebuttal by the first candidate. Wayland flipped a coin and Mallek, winning the toss, gave her opening statement first. Afterwards, Wayland entertained questions from the audience. The evening was dominated by growth and development issues in Crozet. Each candidate had two minutes for closing remarks.

(Visit Charlottesville Tomorrow for a timeline of who said what and when)

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors made history last week when they approved the Biscuit Run development, clearing the way for 3,100 homes south of Charlottesville. Brian Wheeler of Charlottesville Tomorrow was there, and joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to talk about what happened late that night, and what it means to the region’s future.

At its meeting on September 5, 2007, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors held a work session on the proposed Willow Glen subdivision, near the Charlottesville Regional Airport and the Hollymead Town Center. (link to staff report)

The applicant seeks to build 234 units on 23 acres of land, in a mixture of townhomes and single-family detached houses. The land is currently designated in the comp plan as a mixture of Light Industrial Service and Urban Residential, and the developer and owner are requesting a change to all Urban Residential as part of the Places29 Master Plan.

The two and a half hour discussion covered topics ranging from whether the County has enough land for light industrial use, as well as whether developers can specify how money from their cash proffers can be spent.

For more on the story, visit Charlottesville Tomorrow’s article.

As Wahoos flow back into Charlottesville to the University of Virginia, water is also once again flowing over the South Fork Rivanna Dam. How long the latter will continue in the face of an influx of new users and little new rainfall is a major question on the minds of local water officials. In one form or another, the community water supply was the dominant theme at the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s August board meeting. The prevalence of the county’s still-existing drought condition was acknowledged repeatedly as the Board of Directors moved through their agenda; in fact, Tom Frederick wasted no time by starting the meeting with a presentation of his findings on current water levels in the area.

(for the rest of this story, or to comment, please visit Charlottesville Tomorrow)

Brian Wheeler of Charlottesville Tomorrow stops by the studio to talk about his organization’s Election Watch coverage. Charlottesville Tomorrow will provide full coverage of all 12 candidates running for the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. The non-partisan group has posted the full video of the first Candidates’ Forum for County, held August 14 by the Farm Bureau.G,V As the election nears, Charlottesville Tomorrow will interview each of the candidates and use their comments in a voter guide to be distributed to every household in Albemarle County and Charlottesville.

In other news, Coy asks Brian to break down a recent rezoning approval granted by the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to developer Wendell Wood for land near the National Ground Intelligence Center.

The Speed Round also returns in this installment of “WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now!”with Coy Barefoot, with news on the Fifth and Avon project, Albemarle Place, Belvedere, Hollymead Town Center, North Pointe, Old Trail Village, Rivanna Village,

The campaign season for three Board of Supervisors races is officially underway, with the first candidates’ forum of the year. Seven candidates for three seats were guests at the annual meeting of the Albemarle County Farm Bureau, held August 14, 2007 at Western Albemarle High School.

President Joe Jones joked with the crowd that he would have preferred to have booked a bluegrass band  to close out the annual meeting.

However, the Board of Directors felt with the number of seats up for election this fall, that part of our responsibility as an organization is to educate our membership,kj he said. Part of that education is getting to know the candidates for the Board of Supervisors.

For more on this story including full video coverage, visit Charlottesville Tomorrow.