Dear Planning Commission, City Council, and Mr. Sanders,

We are writing to express our appreciation and support for the draft CIP budget. We are pleased to see continued significant investment in school facilities and affordable housing. And we are also very pleased to see that for the first time in a very long time, the city is truly committing to making significant and sustained investment in multimodal / non-car transportation infrastructure. The sidewalk program and ADA transition funding will make Charlottesville safer and more livable.

We are also appreciative of the work staff has done to create a website with thorough explanations of planned projects, their cost, and how they relate to the city’s stated goals. This has come a long way from the fairly recent days when the draft CIP was presented as a spreadsheet with little context or supporting information.

A slight detour down memory lane may be helpful for appreciating how far the CIP has come. In 2019, council chambers were packed for the Planning Commission public hearing for the draft CIP. Arguably, that meeting set the stage for where we are now. The then city manager had proposed an austerity budget and the public responded strongly in protest. The budget at that time included two wasteful projects — the West Main Streetscape and the courts parking garage — which were poorly planned, extremely expensive, and did not align with community needs. It also did not include the Buford and Walker renovations. Twenty-four speakers spoke up to support affordable housing, bike/ped/ADA infrastructure, and tree canopy investment and the Planning Commission subsequently recommended a series of amendments in line with the public comments.

Moving ahead a couple years, In 2021, we wrote you asking for increased investment in affordable housing, and bicycle, sidewalk, and transit infrastructure. We also asked for funding for the courts parking garage to be removed, and subsequently, it was. In 2022, we wrote you expressing support for the Buford renovation and additional funding for affordable housing. But we also once again expressed frustration at the lack of investment in sidewalk and bicycle infrastructure. Last year, we wrote you in support of renovating Walker School and the Central Library, but once again expressed frustration at the lack of investment in sidewalk, bicycle, and ADA infrastructure.

The city is making progress towards making our stated values and our budgets line up. We are deeply appreciative of the work that has gone into making this shift. There is still much to do and investment to be made but it is exciting to see how far we have come.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Matthew Gillikin and Steven. L. Johnson,

Co-Chairs, Livable Cville