City
of Charlottesville
MEMO
"A World Class City”
TO: City
Council
FROM: James
E. Tolbert, AICP, Director
DATE: May 9,
2014
SUBJECT: Street
Design Charette Workshops
From
May 27th through May 30th the Toole Design Group and City
Staff will be conducting a Design Charette on City Street Design. There will be stakeholder meetings,
presentations and drop-in opportunities during the week.
This
memo is to give you background information and the schedule of meetings.
All
meetings are at City Space.
The
first is a stakeholder meeting for neighborhood leaders. This is not a public meeting so we would like
for you to come or send one representative of your neighborhood. The meeting is
Wednesday,
May 28th Large
Room 1:30 p.m. Neighborhood Leaders
There
are several opportunities for public participation in this process. Please invite as many of your neighborhood as
possible to come to some of these.
The
public opportunities for the week include (all at City Space):
May 27th 5:30 p.m. Ian
Lockwood Presentation
May 29th 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Drop In Discussion
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Open House
May 30th 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm Final Presentation
We
hope that you can come to these meetings.
Below
is additional background information.
Background:
In February 2014, City Council reaffirmed its
commitment to creating complete streets for all users and adopted a resolution
to consider the context surrounding the streets as part of any future street
design process. As part of the resolution, Council directed staff to undertake
a planning process that will reflect the understanding that streets serve a
multitude of transportation, economic, social, recreational and ecological
needs that must be considered when deciding on the most appropriate design.
Process:
The first phase of the planning process will kick-off
on May 27th with a 4 day street design workshop that will establish
a vision to better accommodate and prioritize the multiple users of
Charlottesville’s streets and we hope you will be able to share your insight
throughout the process. The public is invited to attend a kickoff meeting on
Tuesday, May 27th to learn about the process and hear a presentation
from Ian Lockwood on the topic of Livable Streets. Drop in times are scheduled
on Thursday, May 29th from 11:00 am -1:00 pm and from 6:30 pm to
8:00 pm for public to review progress. Revised drawings based on public input
will be available for review and comment on May 30th at a final
presentation from 4:30-5:30 pm at City Space.
We hope you will save the dates!
Deliverables:
The creation of the Street Design Guidelines shows the
City’s commitment toward balancing the needs of all street users, with a
particular focus on the pedestrian environment and how streets can be used as public
space. The Guidelines will recommend streetscape elements based on the type of
street (local collector, arterial) and the character district the street passes
through (downtown, neighborhood center, traditional neighborhood, local or
regional commercial, recreation/open space, or industrial, etc.).
Next Steps:
Throughout the summer, city staff will be reviewing
relevant City ordinances and engineering standards that affect the way our
streets are designed to achieve the vision set out during the street design
workshop.
A final plan that will include the results of the
policy audit and street design workshop will be completed by June 2015.
JET:sdp
cc: Amanda Poncy
