Occasionally, against the odds, a street tree will grow to maturity in Charlottesville. This tree
at the corner of Nassau and Carlton, has thus far eluded the “right tree right place” police.
Black and White
photography from the Chesapeake Bay watershed by Bill Emory
2014/03/06
Catalpa bignonioides
2014/03/05
Shared Street
Does the City have an ordinance that requires private utilities to remove their poles from the sidewalk?
Adopted by City Council on Oct. 4, 2010
AN ORDINANCE
AMENDING AND REORDAINING SECTION 28-26 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, 1990, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO THE DEPOSIT OF ICE AND SNOW ON PUBLIC RIGHTS-OF-WAY
BE IT ORDAINED by the Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, that Section
28-26 of the Charlottesville City Code, 1990, as amended, is hereby amended and reordained, as follows:
Sec. 28-25. Removal of snow, sleet and ice from sidewalks.
(a) It shall be the duty of every owner and/or occupant of every house or lot which abuts or
fronts on, or is otherwise situated on, a paved sidewalk or walkway to have all snow removed from such
sidewalk or walkway within twenty-four (24) hours after the same has ceased falling.
This requirement shall exist whether or not an unpaved strip of publicly-owned property runs
between the paved sidewalk and the private property line and the words “abuts,” “fronts on,”
“otherwise situated on,” should be interpreted in accord with such requirement. The duty of snow removal
imposed on each owner and/or occupant by this section extends only to that portion of a particular paved
sidewalk or walkway which runs in front of that particular owner’s or occupant’s private property.
2014/01/28
paving season
I never complain about the pavement in neighborhoods because when the membrane is allowed to deteriorate sufficiently many benefits accrue.
There is the traffic calming benefit, travel speeds are reduced, drivers moderate their speed.
This is a poor man’s pervious pavement, allowing some recharging of groundwater levels.
I wonder if there is a correlation between condition of streets and median income of the surrounding neighborhood?
2014/01/18
Main Street Indeed
Monday January 13 UVA School of Architecture students and faculty walk where angels fear to tread,
a five mile trek north from the Ivy Road “Seminole Trail” intersection to the Rivanna River.
The pedestrian infrastructure along Route 29 is 99.9% installed.
Where then are the pedestrians?
During the two hour walk the folk from UVA encountered a handful of indigenous bipeds.
The majority were runners wrapped in spandex, plugged into hydration equipment.
Several were seated at CAT bus-stops, visual and aural hooked to cell phones and iPods.
The event was covered by the Daily Progress and Channel 29, from automobiles.
The throng makes its way north at 2.5 mph. While US 29 might appear visually interesting at 45 mph, at walking speed its lack of amenities is notable, there is nothing to see or do other than preserve one’s physical safety.
The strip is a visual wasteland.
One constant along the way were the looks of disbelief that the group of pedestrians received from the rubber tire populace.
Even the newest development along “Main Street” offers slight comfort to bipeds.
This store featured an inviting, human scale facade.
Sunday, January 19, students will present their proposals at the Carver Rec Center, 605 E. Main St., Charlottesville, VA 22902.
Charlottesville Tomorrow covers the winners
Color photos of the Route 29 trek by Sanjay Suchak
Charlottesville Tomorrow coverage
2014/01/06
College Hill
Tree stocking, a forestry concept, provides a useful tool for evaluating the degree of success
a city has achieved in cultivating the portion of its urban forest located in the commons,
along the street edge.
The College Hill neighborhood in Providence has done a good job.
2013/12/31
City Standards and Design
In November I heard that Dominion Power (aka Dom.Com, VEPCO, Dominion) had indicated to a Charlottesville City Councilor that utility poles located in the middle of sidewalks could be addressed. Dominion was interested in a list, an inventory of such poles.
HEY Dominion! Are these two more sidewalk poles in the making? 1000 block of East Market Street.
Decrease the width of the street to 36 feet, keep the sidewalk, move the poles?
Put the lines in an underground utility bus?
2013/11/11
exeunt
Pictured above, Gabe’s truck, parked on West Main, February, 1994. No one broke in.
A good man gone.
2013/10/26
Three Notched
Charlottesville City staff join personnel from Rhodeside and Harwell for a walk up and down a portion of the Three Notch’d Road. At the west end of the 4,000 foot segment are the grounds of University of Virginia, at the east end of the segment, is the Charlottesville pedestrian mall.
Of the area in-between the West Main subcommittee of the PLACE Task Force comments:
The subcommittee’s preliminary discussions about the corridor suggested that there were several impediments to its success that related to: the design of many of its discrete elements; the codes and design guidelines that govern both the public right-of-way and the adjacent properties; and the review process for new development. Several of the design problems include, for example, the conflict between street trees and overhead utilities, sidewalks that are too narrow, poor lighting, excessive off-street parking along the street edge, and unsafe intersections (particularly the intersection of west Main Street and Ridge/McIntire).
The different character of West Main along its length was not reflected in the planning guidelines and codes governing the corridor, and the expectations for redevelopment were not clear, creating a difficult review process for those wishing to build along the corridor. Property owners and developers also indicated that many of the issues they face need to be addressed collectively, and would support efforts from the city to coordinate the actions of individual property owners. These issues include parking, stormwater management, maintenance and security.
Pictured above, Elliot Rhodeside. Behind him is the awesome pedestrian no-man’s land formed by the intersection of South Street, Water Street, Ridge-McIntire, Ridge and West Main. How about the Poynton approach?
A great deal of activity on W. Main these days. How will the commons fare? Commons is the space shared by cyclists, trees, fire-engines, pedestrians, parked cars, gas, water, stormwater and sewer lines, overhead utilities, street lights, street furniture, signage, student BMW’s, public transit, local freight, skateboarders….
Sustain!
To learn more about the history of W.Main download the PLACE Annual Report.
PLACE Report 2013
Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Sean Tubbs reports
2013/05/20
mice and men
Tonight, last thing on the agenda, Council considers housing for the last people on anyone’s mind.
A developer from Richmond has applied for a special use permit to locate 102 apartments on the eastern and western edges of the former H.T.Ferron ready mix plant on Carlton Avenue.
Tonight, Council will hold a public hearing and discuss the proposed 2013 Comprehensive plan. These plans make a difference. With the new
millennium came a comp plan came high density zoning around UVA and along certain corridors in CHO (Main Street) where services are available.
Was there a memo, was there planning that called for density on the Carlton Avenue corridor? Is Carlton Avenue a corridor. Is it a catchbasin?
2013/05/15
mice and men
All manner of development activity afoot in Charlottesville. One of the Planning Commissioners commented on it last night, I didn’t write the exact number down, but there are something like a thousand “dwelling units” fixing to appear on the real estate market. Another Planning Commissioner asked how we were coming on meeting the proposed Comprehensive Plan goal of having 15% of that new housing affordable. There wasn’t an answer readily available to that question. Most of the housing being built near UVA is constructed to do liposuction on the students’ parents wallets. No one ever builds affordable housing for UVA workers near the U. There is some affordable housing coming on line, JABA’s Timberlake Place in the Woolen Mills and Habitat’s Sunrise Park, 1/4 mile south of Timberlake, in east Belmont-Carlton. (so roughly 5% of the 1000 units are affordable)
Not all the development is residential. CFA remodeling is rocking along at the former Martha Jefferson.
Not all the development is roofs for sleeping/working people. Over on the sewer side of town Big doings. RWSA has been successfully addressing multiple issues. They have increased Phosphorous and Nitrogen removal from their effluent, an excellent development for the Rivanna River, the James and the Chesapeake Bay. Additionally, they’ve constructed a wetland, they are fixing to unleash a tunnel boring machine and they have made major strides in odor control, keeping the stink on site.
In every direction there are people planning…
…tackling long range issues. How do we reconnect the people to the river. How do we make the street a place that’s good for more than squashing possums and exercising fire engines? How do we restore streets to their commons status?
How do we incorporate green infrastructure and low impact development practices into our cheat the cookie building culture?
How do we move to excellent urban planning?
