The two changes have been highlighted in yellow.  The first change includes the removal of the words “Options 5 & 6″ from the 2nd to last paragraph.  Language now reads: “the CRHA Redevelopment Committee recommends adopting the Master Plan as a working document….”  It was felt that this would cause less confusion for folks who were newer to the process and were unfamiliar with what “Options 5 & 6″ referred to.

The second change includes the addition of language to the last paragraph: “…including but not limited to: the City Council; Neighborhood Development Services and Economic Development…”  This language is to help ensure that the City has a stake in the process and will be held accountable for being involved as we move forward. 

Additional changes have been suggested, and they can be considered at tonight’s Board meeting.  It begins at 7:00 in City Council Chambers.  For those who are unable to attend the meeting in person, you can see the meeting live on Channel 10 or watch it streaming from the City’s website: www.charlottesville.org

Concerns that were raised are similar to topics being discussed in the 2+ year-long conversations that our Board and Redevelopment Committee have been having.  Questions about what is an appropriate level of density; what uses (other than residential) are most appropriate in each neighborhood; aesthetics and design criteria for neighborhood cohesion; and the proper income-mix of tenants to positively impact surrounding neighborhoods and schools.  These topics will continue to be on our radar for the entirety of the process and we welcome your input and perspective during these conversations.  In addition to these topics, a few other items stood out to me from that meeting:

Lesson #1 – A pile of mis-information is floating around in the community about the Housing Authority.   Information is needed to help educate community members about the history of the Housing Authority and what it was created to do; who the families are that are served through its programs; and what the goals and objectives are for its Redevelopment efforts.  This was one of the most important take-aways for me from this meeting and we are taking steps to further the information sharing process. 

Among other things, a History page will be added to the website to help provide some much needed context and clarity about the evolution of Charlottesville’s public housing communities and the 1960s Urban Renewal demolition of the Vinegar Hill neighborhood.  Questions and comments heard at the Board meeting can be explored via information posted on this page.

Lesson #2 – Additional work needs to be done to strenghten neighborhood-wide communications.      Like many other elements of our Redevelopment Process, our communications and outreach efforts have been evolving over the course of the past two years.  We have found that some methods work better than others and we are always appreciative of suggestions received from community members looking to remain in engaged in our project. 

More than one of the community members that came to the meeting stated that they were unaware that the Housing Authority was working on redeveloping its sites and that community meetings had been going on for the past 16 months.  And while there is little that can be done about past meetings, I will say that we have made several adjustments in-house to ensure that community members are more aware of our future meetings. 

Many who attended the meeting were already in my e-mail and/or snail mail databases.  We use the same e-mail database that the City uses to advertise meetings, including contacts for the presidents of each neighborhood.  Our snail mail database is a compilation of adjacent property owners within a radius of each of our sites and anyone that has been to our meetings in the past and completed the sign-in sheet.  For those who weren’t in my database, your information has been added based on the address you gave during your comments at the meeting.  If anyone feels that I may have incorrect contact information for them because you haven’t been getting my messages, let me know and we’ll update accordingly.  E-mail: Kilroy@charlottesville.org or Phone: 434-970-3253.

Lesson #3 – Community members need to know more about the purpose of the Master Plan document.  I want to clear up a large amount of the concern expressed by folks at the meeting that they had somehow “missed out” on what was happening in the meetings that have already taken place.  When we started the Redevelopment process two years ago, we weren’t sure what exactly we wanted, only that we knew we needed to make some changes.  Three overarching goals were established to help us frame future discussions: 

1. to improve the quality of life for residents served by our apartments and programs;
2. to become more financially sustainable and less reliant upon federal HUD funding; and
3. to create thriving, energy-efficient, mixed-income communities to help deconcentrate poverty in the city

These goals were then supplemented by the eight guiding principles of the Residents’ Bill of Rights which was endorsed unanimously by our Board and the City Council.  A copy of this document can be found in a link on the right.

How to accomplish these goals remained to be seen so we undertook a comprehensive Master Planning process with a consultant team to help learn more about what changes we wanted to see happen; what our options were for making them happen; and to get resident and community feedback along the way to make sure we’re on the right track. 

The Master Plan document is not intended to be the Final Word on what redevelopment will look like in Charlottesville.  Think of it along the lines of a roadmap and a tool that will be used to help guide future discussion.  If you’ve been unable to plug into the process thusfar, not to worry, the proces will only be more participatoty as we move further down the road.  Comments and feedback will continue to be welcomed and to inform this project for as long as it is going on. 

To say that we’ve learned a lot since we started this process would be an understatement.  And to say that we still have a lot to learn would be one too.  Among the list of things that we have already learned is that there isn’t one right way to do redevelopment – we are able to design and craft the process and project’s results to create the best fit for Charlottesville.  Our process has been, and will continue to be, iterative and flexible as it moves forward.  We look forward to your participation.

And last, but certainly not least…

Lesson #4 – There are people regularly reading this website!  My thanks to those of you who have been checking in and using this site as a means of staying informed.  My extra thanks to those of you who drop me a line and remind me that I haven’t posted updates in a while.  I will make sure to keep the site as current as possible and to post updates and articles that will be beneficial.  I’d also appreciate hearing suggestions from folks if there are things you’d like to see on the site that haven’t yet been included.

Thanks again to all who came to our last Board meeting.  We’re glad to be on your radar and look forward to more conversations with you about many of the topics that were mentioned.

A copy of the full resolution can be found here: CRHA Board Resolution #1279

“WHEREAS, the Master Planning process inspired new discussions that led to important, broader questions on issues including, but not limited to, concentration of poverty, past racial segregation policies, density, design, child academic acheivement, school population, mixed income and mixed use neighborhoods, resident services, and economic opportunities, and that such issues deserve further community exploration as they related to redevelopment of each CRHA site but that specific issues of density, site design (including public places such as streetscapes and parks), school population, mixed income and mixed use neighborhoods, and resident services need resolution through additional public process and site plan development”

“WHEREAS, the CRHA Redevelopment Committee recommends adopting the Master Plan (options 5 and 6) as a working document for all future redevelopment and rehabilitation discussions, and stresses these options should remain fluid so as to pursue comprehensive and holistic approaches to the redevelopment of each CRHA site and work to address specific issues outlined above in an inclusive and collaborative manner…”

While it may appear to some that they’ve missed out and that the conversation is over – we’ve only just begun.             We look forward to you joining us at the table -

There are a few important dates coming up in July that I wanted to bring to your attention:

Tuesday, July 13th from 6:00 – 7:30pm – we’ll be hosting a “wrap up” Open House at the Carver Recreation Center on 4th Street, next to the Jefferson School.  Contents and material at the Open House will be geared both towards people who are new to the Redevelopment process as well as people who are more familar with our community meetings and the work we have done so far.

We will provide some background information about our process to date and how we arrived at the contents of the Master Plan.  We will also be showing the latest version of the Draft Plan to collect one more round of feedback and suggestions before the Final Plan is adopted by the Board. 

Randy Bickers, our Executive Director, will give a few opening remarks and then the remainder of the agenda will be time available to walk around and look at the plans for each neighborhood.  More information about the Open House can be found on the flyer found here: Community flyer – Final Meeting

Monday, July 26th at 7:00pm – regularly scheduled CRHA Board meeting in City Council Chambers.  During this meeting the Board will hear a presentation about the Final Master Plan from our consultant team at WRT.  After this presentation is finished, the Board will look to pass a resolution adopting the Master Plan and giving staff the green light to move forward with the first steps towards Implementation.  CRHA Board meetings are free and open to the public.  There are also two public comment periods – one at the beginning of the agenda and one at the end of the agenda before the meeting is closed.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Amy Kilroy, Redevelopment Director, by phone: 434.970.3253 or by e-mail: Kilroy@charlottesville.org   In the meantime, we hope you can join us for either of the above-mentioned meetings.

Thanks for reading!

We have recently updated a number of pages on the website – including the meeting minutes, design scenarios, newsletters and the section called “in the news”.  My thanks to those of you who have been keeping up with our efforts via the website…and my apologies for the delay in keeping this information current! 

In addition to getting caught up on older news, we wanted to give a brief look at our past “Year in Review” as we approach that milestone in our process.  Some of you have been involved with us since the beginning and others are newer to the table….either way, we’re glad to have you join us and are always appreciative of your feedback!

Since our kick-off meeting last spring, we have had the opportunity to hear feedback from hundreds of folks in the community about plans for Charlottesville’s public housing neighborhoods.  We have spent a great deal of time examining what we have now, what we would like to have in the future and how we are going to get there.  We have been learning what to keep similar in the neighborhoods and what needs to be changed thru redevelopment. 

In the fall we began receiving set of drawings showing different options for each neighborhood.  Thru a series of resident and community meetings, we were able to narrow these options down into the ones you see in the Draft Master Plan.  When we last met for Community Meetings in December, the consultant team from WRT presented us with our first look at the Draft Master Plan.  A number of items in the Draft Master Plan were well received and several of them also received feedback requiring further study.

The two major topics that ended up in the further study column are:

What level of density is most appropriate for the CRHA sites?  CRHA currently owns over 40 acres of land across the city and many of its sites are fairly suburban in design layout and density.  We will be looking to improve upon both of those points as redevelopment moves forward.

and

What level of mixed-income housing will do the greatest good for all families who live in these neighborhoods after construction is finished?  Right now, all of the CRHA sites only contain public housing units.  After redevelopment is finished, we would like for as many of our sites to contain a mix of incomes and housing types.  This can include public housing units, other types of affordable rentals (i.e. Section 8 units, Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) units) and market rate units.  Homeownership units are also being considered for inclusion. 

As you can probably tell, there are a number of moving parts within the Redevelompent process.  Over the past couple months, Housing Authority staff, members of the CRHA Board and Redevelopment Committee, and staff from our resident association have been grappling with the consultant team at WRT to figure out what the best compilation of options is for our neighborhoods.  After collecting feedback from each of the eight neighborhoods, you can imagine how much information there was to sort through! 

Below is a link to a pdf document showing the range of options that have been considered so far.  More than likely the Final Master Plan will consist of some sort of hybrid scenario combining elements from a few of these options – but that decision has not been reached yet. 

Development Scenarios Update

The Draft Master Plan (found via link at left) is represented under “Alternative #5″ and the new Higher Density Drawings (also found at left) are represented under “Alternative #6″.

We anticipate running one final round of resident and community meetings within the next two months before bringing this first phase of our project to a close.  Once those meeting dates and times have been established, we’ll be sure to get the information advertised in time for you to join us!

Thanks for reading.

If you have comments or questions about the Draft please contact Amy Kilroy, Redevelopment Director, at (434) 970-3253 or Kilroy@charlottesville.org

WHERE:        Portico Event Center, 205 Monticello Avenue

WHAT:          Our Master Planning consultants have been working with us since May of this year to put together a master plan for the redevelopment of all 376 public housing units in the city.  After multiple rounds of community meetings over the past 6 months, this will be our opportunity to review and comment on the Draft Master Plan.

A copy of the Draft Plan will be available for review beginning on Wednesday, November 25^th.  You may view the plan here or you may call and request a hard copy from the Central Office.

Food, drinks and childcare will be provided during the meeting.  Parking is available in the Portico parking lot and on all of the adjacent streets.

WHY:             This will be our final opportunity to provide input on the Master Plan before it gets completed.  Comments received during this round of meetings will be incorporated into the Final Plan.  Our consultants will return one more time in January to present the Final Master Plan.

The CRHA Board will also be meeting with consultants from 2-4pm December 3rd in the Basement Conference Room of City Hall.  No childcare or refreshments will be provided for the Board meeting.

If you are less familiar with some of our sites, there is a page called “Existing Conditions” which shows aerial photos of what our sites look like right now.   Under the ”Design Scenarios” page is a link to the drafts for each neighborhood.  Please take some time to review these options and let us know what you think!

You can submit questions, suggestions or other feedback in several different ways:

1. Leave us a posting on this website with your feedback and contact info included.
2. Call or e-mail the Redevelopment Director, Amy Kilroy, at Kilroy@charlottesville.org or 434-970-3253
3. Submit your comments in writing and mail them to the Charlottesville Redevelopment & Housing Authority (CRHA), P.O. Box 1405, Charlottesville, VA  22902

We will be receiving and incorporating comments up until Monday, October 26th.  All comments received will be forwarded on to the consultant team for consideration and incorporation into the Master Plan document.

Thank you for taking time to review these scenarios with us.  We look forward to hearing from you!

CRHA-WRT-Master Planning Newsletter

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
6-9pm
Carver Recreation Center
324 4th St. NW  [map]

Thursday, September 24, 2009
4-7pm
Portico Event Center (formerly Monticello Events Center)
201 Monticello Ave.  [map]

Agenda for September Master Planning Meetings