CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA CITY COUNCIL AGENDA Agenda Date: July 19, 2021 Action Required: Appropriation of Funds Presenter: Jeff Werner, Preservation & Design Planner, Department of Neighborhood Development Services (NDS) Staff Contacts: Jeff Werner, Preservation & Design Planner, NDS Alex Ikefuna, Director, NDS Title: Resolution Appropriating Previously Approved Funds for a match of a Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2021-2022 State Survey and Planning Cost Share Program grant for Phase 1 of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan - $10,000 Background: In FY 2018/2019 City Council allocated $50,000 to the CIP’s New Historic Surveys fund (Fund 426, WBS P-00484) for a Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan. The City of Charlottesville, through the Department of Neighborhood Development Services, has been awarded $10,000 from the VDHR 2021-2022 State Survey and Planning Cost Share Program towards the initial phase of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan. The total cost for this phase is $20,000, with the City contributing $10,000 from the Fund 426, WBS P-00484. Note: This grant differs from the Certified Local Government Subgrant Program, where the City retains the consultant and VDHR reimburses the City with the awarded grant amount. With a Cost Share Program grant, VDHR will retain and pay the consultant using the grant and matching funds transferred by the City to VDHR. Discussion: The Mall is both an important designed-space for the community and a critical piece of City infrastructure. Following the criteria for a cultural landscape report, the goals for the project are establishing the Mall’s importance as a constructed landscape and historic site and to developed appropriate guidelines for its long-term management.1 1 The completed study and plan will conform to the criteria established by the U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/nps/cl_reports.pdf Appropriation 2021-22 CLG Grant, Downtown Mall CLR Page 1 The area to be evaluated is entirely within the public right of way and roughly encompasses the area between Water Street on the west and the Downtown Visitors Center on the east; and side streets in this area between East Market Street on the north, and Water Street on the south (including 2nd Street on the west through 5th Street on the east). The Mall is part of the Charlottesville/Albemarle County Courthouse National Register Historic District and the Downtown Architectural Design Control District. Managed and maintained by several city departments, the mall also receives design and preservation oversight from the city’s Board of Architectural Review. Phase 1 of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan consists of the following components: • Conduct a reconnaissance-level, comprehensive survey of the Downtown Mall. Prepare and submit to VDHR a Preliminary Information Form (PIF), which will be used to evaluate a potential amendment to the existing National Register designation for the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District. The PIF narrative will include a general architectural and landscape description of the Downtown Mall, a brief history, and the maps and photos required for the PIF. • With the reconnaissance historic survey, the consultant will conduct a conditions survey of Mall elements, with photographic and written documentation of site conditions. • Deliverables from the survey fieldwork will include preparation and submittal of Virginia Cultural Resource Information System (V-CRIS) inventory forms and a survey report. • The City has a tremendous amount of information related to the Downtown Mall, including the Halprin Plan, later modifications, and various maintenance plans and reports. The consultant will inventory this information. Note: In 2022-2023, staff anticipates imitating the second phase of the project (summary below), for which staff will use the remaining CIP allocation and to also leverage those funds for additional grant funding. • Development of a Treatment Plan: Working from the conditions survey, develop a lifecycle and maintenance plan for the Mall’s elements and components. This will include outreach to stakeholder groups, a summary of maintenance responsibilities by agency and department, a summary of decision-making processes and entities involved as well, a recommended prioritization of maintenance and improvement projects, and recommendations for anticipation and accommodating changes in technology. Alignment with Council Vision Areas and Strategic Plan: Council’s Vision 2025: • Charlottesville cherishes and builds programming around the evolving research and interpretation of our historic heritage and resources. City Strategic Plan: • Goal 3.5: Protect historic and cultural resources. Additionally, the proposed work is consistent with the City’s Comprehensive Plan: Appropriation 2021-22 CLG Grant, Downtown Mall CLR Page 2 • Urban Design. Goal 1: Continue Charlottesville’s history of architectural and design excellence by maintaining existing traditional design features while encouraging creative, context-sensitive, contemporary planning and design. o 1.1: Promote a sense of place by emphasizing the importance of public buildings, public spaces, and other public improvements as opportunities to promote a distinctive, contextually integrated and a welcoming environment for residents and visitors. o 1.2: Promote Charlottesville’s diverse architectural and cultural heritage by recognizing, respecting, and enhancing the distinct characteristics of each neighborhood, historic district, individually designated historic property, and community node. o 1.6: Encourage the incorporation of meaningful public spaces defined as being available to the general public, into urban design efforts. • Resource Inventory. Goal 4: Systematically inventory and evaluate all historic, cultural and natural resources, landscapes and open spaces as critical and historic elements that make the City special. Develop context narratives that provide the historical and architectural basis for evaluating their significance and integrity and provide the funding and resources necessary to conduct that work. o 4.4: Conduct additional survey work as needed to reevaluate existing ADC district boundaries. o 4.5: Survey and evaluate all City‐owned property, including schools and parks, for historic and design significance and integrity. • Comprehensive Approach. Goal 7: Coordinate the actions of government, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations to achieve preservation and urban design goals. o 7.2: Consider the effects of decisions on historic resources by all public decision‐making bodies. o 7.8: Coordinate with the Public Works and Parks Departments regarding maintenance and construction that would affect historic features of the City’s neighborhoods. Where possible, maintain and repair granite curbs, retaining walls, distinctive paving patterns and other features instead of replacing them. Community Engagement: As with similar historic surveys conducted by the City, community input will be invited and encouraged; however, unlike the historic survey of a neighborhood, this work will examine only that part of the Mall within the City right of way. The second phase of the project, per the standards for such a plan, will include a more deliberate and robust level of community engagement. Budgetary Impact: No additional new funding is required. The City’s share, $10,000, will be allocated from previously appropriated funds in the Historic Surveys capital improvement project account. Recommendation: Staff recommends approval and appropriation of the funds. Appropriation 2021-22 CLG Grant, Downtown Mall CLR Page 3 Alternatives: The alternative is to not approve this project, which would be contrary to Comprehensive Plan’s Historic Preservation goals. Attachments: • Draft resolution: Allocation of City funds to match a Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2021-2022 State Survey and Planning Cost Share Program grant for Phase 1 of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan. • April 1, 2021 application for the 2021-2022 Cost Share Grant. (Note: The initial request was for $5,000. VDHR subsequently awarded the City a grant of $10,000.) • VDHR’s 2021-2022 Cost Share Grant Locality Agreement letter (signed by City Manager) Appropriation 2021-22 CLG Grant, Downtown Mall CLR Page 4 RESOLUTION APPROPRIATING PREVIOUSLY APPROVED FUNDS FOR A match a of Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2021-2022 State Survey and Planning Cost Share Program grant for Phase 1 of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan. $10,000 WHEREAS, the City of Charlottesville, through the Department of Neighborhood Development Services, has been awarded from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources $10,000 funding for Phase 1 of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan; WHEREAS, through the State Survey and Planning Cost Share Program, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources will retain, coordinate, and pay the consultant who completes Phase 1 of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall Historic Landscape Study and Management Plan, applying the $10,000 grant to that cost; WHEREAS, under the provisions of that grant, the City of Charlottesville contribute to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources a matching $10,000 towards the consultant cost: NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, that the sum of $10,000 from the New Historic Surveys fund will be appropriated to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in the following manner: Expenditure $ 10,000 Fund: 426 WBS: P-00484 G/L: 530670 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this appropriation is conditioned upon the matching 2021-2022 State Survey and Planning Cost Share Program grant of $10,000 for the fiscal year. Approved by Council July 19, 2021 __________________ Clerk of Council Appropriation 2021-22 CLG Grant, Downtown Mall CLR Page 5