George,

After attending yesterday's council work session on West Main Street and downtown improvements and reading the John Yellig article in the November 15, 2005 Daily Progress entitled "City maps out redevelopment", I simply had to send you some of my my thoughts on current planning and decision making in the city. I hope you will share these thoughts on your list.

Department of Neighborhood Development Services director Jim Tolbert presented a proposal that will dramatically alter the West Main St. traffic intersection with Ridge-McIntire Road. The proposal would move the Lewis/Clark/Sacagawea monument to provide an additional through lane of traffic heading south - and closing off South Street. Although I have not heard about this proposal before yesterday and I am reasonably involved in local transportation and traffic planning in the city, I was surprised to hear Councillor Lynch's comments - that were quoted in the Daily Progress.

The quote is

'I think moving the statue should be a priority,' Councillor Kevin Lynch said at a work session Monday. 'I haven't heard anyone in the community saying this is a bad idea, so what does it take to get it on the front burner? I could vote on this thing Monday.'

Is Councillor Kevin Lynch articulating a new planning and public involvement policy for the council here that if he doesn't hear complaining a project is ready for approval? To my surprise, council members Brown, Schilling, and Caravati seemed to be unfazed by this declaration. I asked the person sitting next to me if she had any knowledge of this proposal - and she said "no."

The current council has not mastered the idea of sharing information being considered by council with members of the general public - perhaps some individuals are aware of these proposals, but I find nothing about this on the city's website and am curious what means the city has employed to bring this proposal to the general public.

But, the city staff is not paying much attention to what is going on in our community, either. Jim Tolbert presented information about trolley service. But, his presentation was about the Portland Oregon trolley system, and how the introduction of trolley service in Portland has impacted economic development there. No mention was made of the work on a trolley currently being investigated by the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation for the West Main Street area in Charlottesville.

Numerous presentations of the West Main Street Trolley proposal have been given on this project, and a report distributed to council members, members of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization, and to other stakeholder groups including the public, but apparently Jim Tolbert hasn't noticed.

Clearly, better communications between city council, city staff, and the public is needed. If the apparent 'knee-jerk' decision making councillor Lynch is using becomes the way major city projects are determined, we are all in for some big surprises. I hope you all will join me in asking for some clearer thinking, better analysis, and more inclusive planning from both council and city staff.

Peter T. Kleeman (electronic mail, November 15, 2005)