RESOLUTION

     Expressing Support for a Capital Project to Establish Handicapped Access to the
                     Charlottesville Dogwood Vietnam Memorial

       WHEREAS the Charlottesville City Council recognizes the historic significance of the
Dogwood Vietnam Memorial as the first Vietnam War Memorial constructed on public property
within our country, and Council also wishes to acknowledge the continuing importance of this
memorial as a poignant lesson of the sacrifices of many of our local residents during the Vietnam
War; and

       WHEREAS the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial was originally constructed in the mid-
1960s within McIntire Park, a public park owned by the City of Charlottesville, funded entirely
by private donations, and City Council desires to take steps to ensure that the Memorial will
remain an important, integral component of the City’s public park system, for generations to
come; and

       WHEREAS the Charlottesville City Council respects the unflagging commitment of the
Dogwood Vietnam Veterans Foundation, whose members have generously contributed funding
and supplies over the course of many years for the care, maintenance and enhancement of the
memorial and surrounding plaza; and

        WHEREAS in response to concerns that the Memorial is not easy for handicapped
persons to access, City Council appointed a working group in 2019, to discuss pedestrian access
to the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Plaza and identify obstacles to pedestrian accessibility; this
working group recommended to City Council the creation of a vehicle parking area with a
pedestrian bridge crossing over the John Warner Parkway; now, therefore,

        BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Charlottesville THAT the City Council
desires to identify a path forward for making a parking lot and handicapped accessible access
from the parking lot to the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Plaza a viable capital construction
project, to be undertaken either by the City government, or by the City in conjunction with a
third party, following review of options available under applicable procurement or other legal
procedures, with the intention that the project will be funded by private donations as well as state
or local public funds; and

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the City Council hereby requests Senator Creigh
Deeds to sponsor a request for state funding to be awarded to the Charlottesville Dogwood
Vietnam Veterans Foundation, or to the City of Charlottesville as fiscal agent for the Foundation,
such funding to be used solely for construction of a parking lot adjacent to the John Warner
Parkway and construction of a handicapped-accessible pedestrian walkway from the parking lot
to the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Plaza.