Charlottesville Tomorrow is one of the community’s most valuable resources and they put out a tremendous amount of information that is relevant to my clients, potential clients, (and importantly, myself and my family).

So … for the past 30 days or so, these are some of my most relevant stories from Charlottesville Tomorrow.

• Proposed Albemarle development to offer sites for two new schools
  • Good. Lots of new homes should bring more schools. This is good for the County of Albemarle.
• Albemarle panel says no to developer’s second request for lower proffers
  • This matters. Without proffers, we don’t get trails and other amenities. What’s the balance?
• School Board finalizes bond referendum wish list
  • What’s on the list, specifically?
• City files countersuit against Charlottesville Parking Center
  • This is high drama, people. Truly amazing. I hope you’re following it. I hear frequently from people who choose to not come downtown because they can’t find parking. Parking wars!
• Albemarle takes input on events at farm wineries, cideries
  • I followed the tweets from Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum during these roundtables; they were fascinating.
• Albemarle supervisors seek new process to prioritize rural road paving
  • Rural, unpaved roads are fantastic, slower, and loved by runners, walkers, bicyclists … not all roads need to be paved.
• Albemarle supervisors agree to pursue bond referendum to fund school projects
  • “Albemarle County staff this month will begin planning a $35.5 million November bond referendum to pay for an as-yet unspecified list of school projects.” — they’ll specify this before we vote on it, right?
• Planning underway for more bike commuting paths
  • ““One of the biggest problems has been the transition from city to county and vice-versa,” said Scott Paisley, who is also a co-owner of Blue Wheel Bicycles. “The boundary zone is not safe at this point and is an issue that needs to be addressed.”” — what he said.
• New ordinance paves way for valet parking in the city
  • Because valet parking will solve the parking challenges in downtown Charlottesville. Optics, people.

I did this wrapup last month … and found it useful. I hope you did as well.

And … because this is huge (and not from Charlottesville Tomorrow, but from the Free Enterprise Forum):

Ripping of the Rio GSI (Grade Separated Interchange) Bandaid

 

“This is gonna hurt” — Taking off a Band Aid, you know there will be pain.  There are two diametrically different schools of thought regarding bandage removal: slowly easing it off the wound, or ripping it of swiftly.  The US29/Rio Grade Separated Interchange (GSI) project is clearly the latter of the two.

…

As it has every night in recent months, at 9 pm on Sunday May 22nd the U.S. 29/Rio Road intersection will close to cross traffic; the difference is this time it will not reopen at 6 am on May 24th.  Vehicles will be allowed to turn right onto Rio and Rio traffic will be allowed to turn right onto U.S. 29 but the cross over will close. On U.S.  29 two southbound lanes and three northbound lanes will be maintained between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

…

All 60,000 yards of dirt and millings will be cleared from the site by June 15, 2016.  To be clear, a fleet of 30 trucks will be going up and down US29 for 20 hours everyday for 23 days.  It will be an intensive, albeit short, clearing period.

More of “what should you read if you’re moving to Charlottesville“?

Thanks, Charlottesville Tomorrow folks.