CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
                  CITY COUNCIL AGENDA



  Agenda Date:         August 15, 2022

  Action Required:     Adoption of Ordinance (2nd Reading)

  Presenter:           Lisa Robertson, City Attorney

  Staff Contacts:      Brenda Kelley, Redevelopment Manager

  Title:               Request for Vacation of Unaccepted Right-of-Way for Oak Street at 321
                       6th Street (2nd reading deferred from 7/18/22)


Background
The City has received a request from Portia Boggs and Vignesh Kuppusamy, the owners of a lot
located at 321 6th Street, S.W., asking the City to convey to them a strip of property adjacent to their
lot. The strip of property in question was platted (circa 1888) as a 20-foot right-of-way identified as
“Oak Street” (“Subject Property”). The subdivision plat which created the right-of-way was recorded
in the land records of Albemarle County at Deed Book 90 Page 52. (This area is part of an area that
was annexed by the City in the distant past).

Previous 2010 Council Vacation: previously, in March 2010, City Council closed a seventy-seven
(77) foot section of the old platted street, beginning at 6-1/2 Street S.W. and continuing up to the
eastern property line of the lots currently identified as 316 and 322 6-1/2 Street S.W. In 2010 City
Council did not require the landowners who requested vacation of the plat to pay for the extra square
footage of land that was acquired. The 2010 Ordinance states that there were no utility “easements”
within the portion of Oak Street that was previously vacated.

Per Virginia Code §15.2-2274, if this remaining portion of Oak Street is vacated by City Council, fee
simple title to the centerline of the platted street will vest in the two adjacent landowners (i.e., Boggs/
Kuppusamy, who are requesting this, and their neighbors at 313 6th St., S.W.).

Discussion
Virginia Code §15.2-2272 authorizes City Council to vacate property lines shown within a recorded
subdivision plat, upon the application of any interested person. The request has been reviewed by
the following department heads, none of whom had any substantive comments or
recommendations: Utilities; Public Works; Neighborhood Development Services; Office of
Community Solutions; Economic Development; Parks and Recreation.

Alignment with City Council's Vision and Strategic Plan
Not indicated by any department head.
Community Engagement
A public hearing is required, per Va. Code §15.2-2272(2) and was conducted as part of the first
reading of this proposed ordinance.

Budgetary Impact
None identified by any department director or the city manager's office.

Recommendation
The City Attorney's office recommends that any ordinance vacating the Subject Street should require
a private easement in favor of the owner of 313 6th Street, S.W. There exists a utility service line
within a portion of the Subject Street, connecting a house on that lot to a public main in 6th Street,
S.W. Although the precise location is not known at this time, in relation to the centerline of the
Subject Street area, requiring that the vacation be subject to a private easement in favor of 313 6th
Street, S.W. will ensure that--to the extent, if any, that the existing utility line might be located in an
area that crosses over the centerline of the Subject Street area, the homeowner on 313 6th Street,
S.W. will not be placed at odds with the landowner(s) on the opposite side of the Subject Street.

Suggested Motion: "I MOVE THE ORDINANCE closing, vacating and discontinuing that
portion of Oak Street, an unaccepted right of way, between 6th Street, S.W. and 6-1/2 Street,
S.W., adjacent to Parcels 98 and 184 on City Real Estate Tax Map 29."

Alternatives
Council may (by verbal motion) deny the request. Council may also defer the request for action at a
later date.

Attachments
1.   ORDINANCE 321 6th Street Vacation