City Council’s chooses Proposal for the City Market Site

City of Charlottesville:

“The City Council selected the Market Plaza proposal submitted by local builder Keith Woodard at a meeting last Monday night [June 16]. A total of four proposals were submitted. Woodard intends to purchase and redevelop a city-owned parking lot into a nine-story building that will have homes, offices and stores. The proposal envisions an L-shaped building with retail frontage on Water Street and Second Street Southwest. The City Market would be held in a half-acre public plaza with enough space for 115 vendor stalls. The building would feature 18,000 square feet of retail space, 58,000 square feet of commercial space and 67 apartment units.”

~Writes Charlottesville Tomorrow

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Residents Campaign Against ‘Concrete Villages’ At Tuscarora Crossing

Loudoun County:

“While Loudoun County planners continue to hammer out the details of the Tuscarora Crossing development plan, nearby residents are making a push for more residential and less commercial uses on the property.

The current plan proposed by Hunter Lee Center calls for a mixed-use development that would include residential and commercial uses on the 250-acre property adjacent to the W&OD Trail and the Kincaid Forest neighborhood southeast of Leesburg. The plan includes 576 single-family attached and detached units as well as a string of commercial units along Crosstrail Boulevard on the east and west side north of the W&OD Trail and on the east side of Crosstrail south of the trail. It is under review by the Loudoun County Planning Commission and will then go to the Board of Supervisors for review.

Mayor Kristen Umstattd and other Leesburg Town Council members are concerned that the application is primarily for residential uses and goes against town and county comprehensive plans that designate the site for business development.”

~Writes April Grant Leesburg Today

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Residents seek to sink lake development

Louisa County:

“Some residents at Lake Anna are hoping the sun will set on a rezoning application for Sunset Coves, which is being marketed as an “aging in place” community that is coming before the Louisa County Board of Supervisors on Monday, May 5.

The applicant, Gary Griffith, wants the county to rezone a 77-acre property adjacent to Maple Springs from its current R-2 zoning to a Planned Unit Development (PUD) so that lot sizes can be reduced to between one-third up to three-quarters of an acre for some parcels.

According to Griffith, the developer, Paul Koenig, is proposing the smaller lot sizes so that houses can be clustered onto half the property near the lake, and maintenance such as grass mowing and snow shoveling can take place with greater ease.

Based on the county’s current zoning regulations, the developer can build by-right 77 homes on the property on one-acre parcels.  But clustering the homes, he said, also allows for 35 acres as parkland, which would include walking trails and wooded acreage.”

~Writes the Central Virginian

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Developers offer to build Boulevard ballpark

City of Richmond:

“A development team has offered to build a new Richmond baseball stadium on North Boulevard without relying on taxpayer dollars, giving city officials a second option that could cause a seismic shift in the long-running ballpark debate. All nine City Council members and the administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones have been given a general overview of the plan, according to Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles.’From what I have seen, this plan is real, and it’s ready to go save a few minor details,’ said Baliles, 1st District.

He added that he’s not committed to either plan, but said the city should take ‘a good look’ at the privately financed alternative to the mayor’s proposal to build a publicly funded minor league baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom.”

~Writes Graham Moomaw Richmond of the Times-Dispatch

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Restaurant planned for abandoned power plant site

City of Fredericksburg:

“A local businessman plans to transform an abandoned hydroelectric power plant on the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg into a restaurant and build adjacent residential condominiums. Ed Whelan and his family last week bought a riverfront property near the intersection of Caroline and Ford streets where the Virginia Electric and Power Company used to run a hydroelectric plant. Whelan’s family, through a limited liability company called Dreamland, bought the 3.93-acre property from an LLC headed by Hugh Cosner, a former Spotsylvania County supervisor who has owned the property at least in part since 1979 and who had also long envisioned a restaurant in the plant known as the former Embrey Power Station.

Whelan, who owns The Inn at the Olde Silk Mill across Caroline Street from the property, said he started talking to Cosner about buying the property last year. The sales price was $1 million. Whelan plans to turn the long-abandoned, graffiti-covered plant into a multilevel restaurant, perhaps with a rooftop bar and other outdoor seating overlooking the river.”

~ Writes Bill Freehing of the Free Lance–Star

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Hounds hope taxable bonds will help finance stadium at One Loudoun

Loudoun County:

“VIP Sports and Entertainment, the company hoping to bring professional baseball and soccer to Loudoun, wrote to the Economic Development Authority last week asking for a resolution for $55 million in taxable bonds to finance a stadium. Hopes are for the stadium to eventually house the Loudoun Hounds of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and Virginia Cavalry FC, of the North American Soccer League.

An inducement resolution shows that an entity like the EDA is willing to issue a bond for projects that would ultimately help the county's economy. Bob Farren, CEO of VIP Sports and Entertainment, hopes the EDA's resolution might mean a financing option with a lower interest rate, making the project cheaper. The EDA does not back the loans or subsidize them with public money. It simply decides if the projects makes sense for the county and writes resolutions.”

~Writes Bob Hancock of the Loudoun Times

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New hotel planned for Emmet Street does not pass design review

Albemarle County:

“Midlothian-based company has filed plans to build a new 87-room Country Inn and Suites hotel on Emmet Street, but their design failed to gain initial approval Tuesday by the Charlottesville Planning Commission. The developer asked for a deferral when it appeared commissioners, acting as the Entrance Corridor Review Board, would not grant a certificate of appropriateness for the design…

Charlottesville Hotel LLC is seeking to build a four-story 52,000 square foot building on land currently occupied by a Days Inn. That business would continue to operate on a smaller scale on the northern section of the property. The adjacent Quality Inn would also continue to operate.

The proposed site plan would remove one existing entrance onto U.S. 29. Staff said that would improve vehicular circulation throughout the entire site. The property is just to the north of the U.S. 250 bypass and is located in one of the city’s entrance corridors. That means the Planning Commission must issue a certificate of appropriateness for new buildings.”

~Writes Sean Tubbs of Charlottesville Tomorrow

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