CITY OF RICHMOND

Seven of the eight Richmond mayoral candidates participated in Tuesday’s forum held at Fourth Baptist Church (Photo: Joe Mahoney – RTD)

Richmond could turn to land trust to help create affordable housing

With a growing number of real estate tax delinquencies in Richmond, the city could soon turn to a new nonprofit organization to help convert the properties into affordable housing. The Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, created last fall, hopes to serve as a resource for the city to convert the liabilities into assets. The land trust’s formation and mission could serve as the solution for what some City Council members see as a flawed structure. “The CLT is not a magic bullet, but it’s a really important tool in the toolbox,” said Laura Lafayette, CEO of the Richmond Association of Realtors and a member of the land trust’s board of directors.

Richmond council approves transparency measure for major projects after compromise
The Richmond City Council reached an agreement with Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration Monday night on a transparency initiative that will require city officials to post documents and contracts for major city projects on a centralized website. Jones’ administration officials had initially balked at the proposal, saying it would be costly and burdensome. But they said changes agreed to by the measure’s sponsor, Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, made it manageable. “Overall, what we did was we simplified the project to make it more of a webpage as opposed to a system, which the original ordinance seemed to be leaning toward, requiring certain data to automatically be extracted,” said John Buturla, the city’s deputy administrator for operations.

CHESTERFIELD

Casey proves he’s no average Joe in leading area counties
It’s always been about the numbers for Dr. Joe Casey, Chesterfield County’s recently appointed county administrator. With an extended background in accounting and finance, Casey developed a love for figures at an early age. “I’ve always been a statistical person,” Casey said. “I was the one who kept the averages on the bowling and Little League teams.”

Labor shortage stymies housing construction
As the housing market continues to get back on its feet in the aftermath of the recession, some experts say the biggest thing holding back single-family housing is a lack of labor, building lots and other supply side issues. Daniel McCue, senior research associate for Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, says that labor is a major constrictor of the housing market going forward. Citing information from the U.S. Census Bureau, McCue says some two million construction workers were lost during the recession, and only about 40 percent of them have returned to the industry. Though there’s an increasing demand for housing, builders don’t have the labor force to meet it. “It’s slowing down projects, it’s increasing delays – those are costs imbedded into the price of construction,” says Rob Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.

 REGIONAL

GRTC Transit route ‘tweaks’ estimated to create $350,000 in savings
GRTC Transit is eliminating three routes and altering nine others, according to a schedule of changes released Monday and scheduled to go into effect on or before Aug. 21. The changes are part of the regular review of GRTC’s more than 40 routes and are expected to save about $350,000, allowing the transit system to remain within the $47 million budget its board of directors adopted in June for the fiscal year that started July 1, said Carrie Rose Pace, a GRTC spokeswoman. “GRTC is trying to preemptively make sure that we tweak appropriately,” Pace said.

Modeling Transit: Public input guides plan for GRTC bus system changes
About 40 people came to the DMV on West Broad Street last night for a glimpse into the decision-making and trade-offs associated with running a public transit system. It was the second of eight meetings being held through Aug. 24 by the team behind the Regional Transit Network Plan; citizens are being asked to balance three concepts: a “familiar” model, a “high ridership” model and a “high coverage” model. “We haven’t really invested in the transit service to any great degree in 40 years,” says Amy Inman, project leader for the city. There have been modest changes but not system-wide changes like we’re talking about here.”

STATE

Legislative work group continues with lodging laws
July 14 a group of Virginia lawmakers met in order to draft regulations for online residential lodging platforms, such as Air BnB. The website has experienced some troubles in the Commonwealth. This past legislative session, a bill that would have allowed for homeowners to rent out their homes for less than 30 days was killed in the State Senate. Some Senators, among them Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant (R-12th) and Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-4th) of Hanover, expressed that the bill did not address all of the necessary areas needed to move forward, such as insurance liabilities. Del. Chris Peace (R-97th) was a proponent of the bill in the House of Delegates, where it passed. When he spoke to the Herald-Progress in February, Peace said that online lodging platforms would allow for more tourists interested in Hanover’s history or attractions like King’s Dominion to visit the county. At the time he said that he believes that there are not enough hospitality accommodations in the Richmond area, therefore Air BnB would be beneficial to travelers. Peace has continued his support into the summer by participating in a work group whose mission is to address the concerns that legislators had about the bill.

Virginia among 23 states to receive top rating for special education programs
Virginia is one of 23 states to earn a top rating from the U.S. Department of Education for how it deals with special education students. The state received a “Meets Requirement” designation in the 2016 IDEA report card issued by the Education Department this week. It was the fourth straight year that Virginia received the highest rating. The ratings are based on data from the 2013-14 school year. “The Virginia Department of Education has restructured its general supervision system over the past three years to encompass the shift to ‘Results Driven Accountability’ and to streamline the effective use of data,” the report’s authors wrote.

Virginia’s transportation project scoring process rebranded
The Commonwealth Transportation Board, which oversees billions of dollars worth of road, rail, bridge and other projects across the state, approved a series of revisions Thursday to the scoring system adopted in 2014 to prioritize and depoliticize transportation spending. The changes, which Chairman Aubrey L. Layne Jr., Virginia’s transportation secretary, called “fairly perfunctory,” come as the Virginia Department of Transportation opens the two-month window on Monday for counties, cities and transportation planning organizations and transit agencies to submit projects to be scored under the process, itself undergoing a rebranding. Originally named HB2 for the bill that created it in 2014, VDOT has rechristened the program “SMART SCALE.” There was always the intent to rename the scoring system, which earned Virginia an award from the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments earlier this month, but the need grew more urgent as debate raged earlier this year over a North Carolina law, also called HB2, dealing with gender identity and bathrooms, Layne said.

ELECTIONS

Richmond mayoral candidates trade jabs over Stone Brewing deal at town hall

Richmond mayoral candidates traded jabs over the economic development deal that brought Stone Brewing Co. to the city during a town hall at Fourth Baptist Church on Tuesday. Former Del. Joseph D. Morrissey kicked things off, criticizing former Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar Stoney for the governor’s support of the deal. “Levar, I really love you, my friend, but you supported along with the governor putting $33 million into a brewery and not schools,” Morrissey said, drawing a rowdy and supportive response from the crowd.

Hillary Clinton picks Richmond’s Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate
Hillary Clinton has picked Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, adding to the Democratic ticket a genial and seasoned former Richmond mayor and Virginia governor who is fluent in Spanish and hails from a key swing state. Kaine, who was Barack Obama’s runner-up in 2008, would be the first vice president from Virginia since John Tyler — another former Virginia governor — held the office for a month in 1841. Kaine, Virginia’s governor from 2006 to 2010, gives Clinton a steady governing partner whose even temperament overshadows a strong competitive streak. He has never lost an election.