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Housing Bikes Pedestrians

Welcome to the Livable Cville
October 2022 newsletter!

Livable Cville is a local all-volunteer organization. We advocate for policies to build an inclusive Charlottesville area with affordable housing, sustainable transportation & healthy neighborhoods welcoming to all.

In this newsletter we celebrate some recent good news, highlight ways you can speak out, events you can show up to, recap recent advocacy and events, and share how you can help out.

Are you enjoying our newsletters? Is there anything more you’d like to get more information? Feel free to hit reply and let us know what you think. And, thank you for your interest in creating a livable, thriving Charlottesville for all current and future residents!

— Matthew Gillikin & Steven Johnson, Livable Cville co-chairs

Your advocacy is making a difference!

  • The 2005/2007 JPA Special Use Permit was approved 4-0 by City Council. This development will provide 119 student-oriented homes and $1 million for the city's affordable housing fund. Livable Cville strongly advocated for approval of this rezoning. Thank you to the many Livable Cville members who sent letters and made public comments in favor of the project.

  • Livable Cville co-authored a letter with the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition and the Charlottesville Albemarle Affordable Housing Coalition recommending a number of additional strategies to improve affordability through the zoning code. 12 local organizations co-signed the letter and over 200 people signed a petition supporting these changes, despite a short turnaround window!

  • Livable Cville also wrote a letter co-signed by our friends at C3 to city leadership advocating for the elimination of parking minimums and an op-ed version was published in the Daily Progress. We are pleased to report that the recommendations in both letters were given serious consideration by city staff, the Planning Commission, and City Council during a work session on Tuesday September 27th to discuss next steps in the Zoning Rewrite.

  • Many Livable Cville members joined in support of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association’s call to dramatically reduce speed limits on Cherry Avenue. Although we were hoping for an even more speed reductions, we applaud City Council for listening to neighbors to help make Cherry a safer street for pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles. We look forward to design changes that will make this stretch of road even safer.

The speed limit on Cherry Avenue is now 25 miles per hour from Cleveland Avenue to Roosevelt Brown Boulevard and 30 miles per hour from Roosevelt Brown Blvd to Ridge Street.

Here’s an action you can take right now!

Question: What one neat trick could help build more affordable apartments buildings in Virginia?

Answer: taller single-staircase buildings!

The chair of the Charlottesville Planning Commission, Lyle Solla-Yates, is sponsoring a update to the Virginia Building Code to allow taller single stair residential buildings in Virginia. There’s a great explanation of the issue in this article and Larch Lab's recent report for Vancouver provides even more background. Here’s how you can advocate for this update:

Whatever option you choose, here are some talking points to consider:

  • Affordability: According to a recent estimate each six story building costs $60,000 more for every extra staircase mandated, not including land costs.

  • Safety: Compared to when the existing code was adopted, there are many more effective and less expensive safety measures now like sprinklers, alarms, and safer materials.

Questions? Send us an email and we’ll be glad to help answer them.

Show Up!

Livable Cville is helping to host one event,
is taking part in a second one, and encourages you to attend the third!

Are you eBike-curious and want to give one a try before making a commitment? Come on out to see a variety of eBikes all at one time. Join us to test-ride a variety of e-bikes from local owners and enthusiasts. In a repeat of the well-attended event in May, Livable Cville is hosting an e-bike demo day on the afternoon of October 16th.

Register Now

We are helping Charlottesville’s Community Climate Collaborative celebrate its fifth birthday! Join us on Friday, October 7 at IX Art Park from 5:30-8 pm for this FREE event. Livable Cville be tabling at the event, so be sure to come on by and say hello!

Please join our friends at Charlottesville United for Public Education in an October 12 (7:30 pm) virtual event to discuss Public School Matters, including an update on the transportation issues the school division, students, and families are currently facing! Register via Eventbrite.

We’ve been busy!

Here’s some of our recent advocacy:

Get Involved!

Livable Cville is an all-volunteer organization. Want to help out?

We provide a range of opportunities for involvement that can work with your availability. If you have 5 minutes a month or 5 hours, we want to make it possible for you to be part of positive change in the Charlottesville area. Here are specific areas you can help out with now:

  1. Volunteer to help register participants and direct traffic at our October 16th eBike Demo Day (a 1 time 2.5 hour commitment),

  2. Volunteer to assist with communications like our website and newsletter (~3-4 hours a month commitment).

Are you an Albemarle County resident? We’d love to strengthen our advocacy efforts in the county. There’s a lot going on including a proposed utility scale solar project, the Southwood Phase 2 Rezoning, and the county's Comprehensive Plan. If you're a county resident and would like to get involved, please let us know!

Email Us to Get Involved!