CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA CITY COUNCIL AGENDA Agenda Date: March 7, 2022 Action Required: Approve Resolution (1st of 2 Readings) Presenter: James Freas, Director, Neighborhood Development Services Staff Contacts: James Freas, Director, Neighborhood Development Services Title: Resolution To Transfer and Appropriate $188,000 within the Capital Projects Fund, from Small Area Plans to the Cville Plans Together Project Background Cville Plans Together has been an ambitious planning project, bringing together visioning, planning, and implementation in a multi-year effort with a prominent focus on addressing issues of equity in our community. The project has included a commitment to a high standard for community engagement that, while challenged by the pandemic, has included numerous avenues for engagement and led to the articulation of the City’s community engagement vision and strategies in the first-ever community engagement chapter of the Comprehensive Plan. As we initiate the final part of this project, developing a new Charlottesville Zoning Ordinance, the Cville Plans Together Team (staff & consultants) is looking to the now adopted policies of the Comprehensive Plan to direct our engagement efforts. Work on this three-part, multi-year project began in December of 2019. The project budget was $926,682 for an anticipated 25-month project schedule. The project is currently in month 27 with an anticipated 12 to 14 months remaining. The project budget for community engagement activities and ongoing project management, originally budgeted for $348,274 and $56,816 respectively, is nearly completely expended. The portion of the budget reserved for drafting the zoning ordinance remains available and sufficient to complete that work. Discussion Staff is requesting that Council appropriate additional funding to support two aspects of the zoning rewrite project; 1) continued community engagement: and project management activities for the remaining 12 to 14 months; and 2) project management: modeling work demonstrating the housing market outcomes of the proposed zoning. The requested appropriation is for $143,810 and $45,000 for a total of $188,810. Staff is proposing appropriating these funds from the Small Area Plan account in the Capital Projects Fund, which has a current balance of $496,037. 1) Community Engagement: Zoning represents a significant aspect of implementing the Comprehensive Plan and Affordable Housing Plan and is a detailed and complicated topic on which most members of the community have limited experience. Our community engagement program will therefore need to be both highly explanatory/educational while at the same time giving community members the opportunity to express their preferences and priorities. Engagement in this part of the Cville Plans Together project will be in the form of community feedback on first the diagnostic & approach report and then the draft zoning document. The adopted comprehensive plan itself provides detailed direction to inform the initial development of the diagnostic and approach report. As has been described previously, the community engagement program will continue to provide multiple avenues of engagement. With improving conditions relative to the pandemic, staff will be engaging in a greater number of community-based meetings, offering the opportunity for dialogue. These will include pop-up engagement at events or high-pedestrian traffic locations and neighborhood based or group meetings. We will also continue to use public meetings/webinars as well as the steering committee. 2) Housing Market Outcome Modeling: A key aspect to understanding the outcomes of the new zoning ordinance is in understanding how the housing market will likely respond to the zoning changes. This modeling work will use existing conditions and data on the Charlottesville area housing market to estimate the potential rate, number, and types of new housing that might result from the change in zoning in the general and medium intensity areas of the Future Land Use Map. Zoning by itself does not lead to new housing development; development happens as a result of people pulling together the financing, resources, and available land in response to market demand. This modeling work will attempt to quantify the extent and likelihood of people being able to do that work under the proposed new zoning rules. Alignment with City Council’s Vision and Strategic Plan Providing for funding to further support community engagement to help inform decision-making is consistent with Goal 1: An Inclusive Community of Self-sufficient Residents and Goal 3: A Beautiful and Sustainable Natural and Built Environment of the City’s Strategic Plan. The specific initiatives being addressed are Initiative 1.5 - Intentionally address issues of race and equity and Initiative 3.1 - Engage in robust and context sensitive urban planning and implementation. Community Engagement: N/A Budgetary Impact The resolution seeks to transfer money previously reserved within the Capital Projects Fund (Small Area Plans) to the Cville Plans Together (Comp Plan) Project, and to appropriate those transferred funds for expenditure to complete the Cville Plans Together Project. Note: While the project is commonly referred to as the Cville Plans Together Project, the account in which the funds for this project reside is labeled as the Comp Plan Project. Therefore, staff has included Comp Plan in parens following each reference to the Cville Plans Together Project. Recommendation Staff recommends approval and appropriation of funds from the CIP. Suggested Motion: “I move to approve the Resolution appropriating additional funding in the amount of $188,810 to the Cville Plans Together Project (Comp Plan), from the Small Area Plans Account within the City’s Capital Projects Fund” Attachments (3) 1) Resolution 2) Community Engagement Tasks Memo from RHI, dated February 9, 2022 3) “Upzoning” analysis Letter from HR&A, dated January 31, 2022 RESOLUTION Appropriating Additional Funding of $188,810 to the Cville Plans Together (Comp Plan) Project, from the Small Area Plans Account within the City’s Capital Projects Fund WHEREAS the consulting contract for the Cville Plans Together (Comp Plan) Project (“Project”) encompassing updating both the Comprehensive Plan and the Zoning Ordinance, has included a commitment by the City of Charlottesville to a high standard for community engagement; and WHEREAS the original budget allocated within the Project budget for community engagement activities and ongoing project management is insufficient to cover the consulting services necessary to complete the zoning rewrite portion of the Project; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, that the sum of $188,810 is hereby transferred within the Capital Projects Fund, from the Small Area Plans Account to the Cville Plans Together (Comp Plan) Project, and appropriated for expenditure to complete the Cville Plans Together (Comp Plan) Project, as follows: Transfer From $188,810 Fund: 426 WBS: P-00819 G/L Account: 599999 Transfer To $188,810 Fund: 426 WBS: P-00935 G/L Account: 599999