City to spend $2.1 million on Hillsdale Drive

The City Council has agreed to spend $2.1 million from its economic development fund on the construction of Hillsdale Drive Extended, a road that may not see another sizable cash infusion for years because of state transportation spending cuts.

Councilors unanimously approved the funding Monday.

“The city obviously benefits by having the road project completed and the tax base expanded,” said Aubrey V. Watts Jr., the city’s director of economic development.

The Hillsdale Drive funding is the largest single project expense to have gone through the city’s Strategic Investment Account since nearly $3.6 million was spent in fiscal 2004 for the Pavilion on the Downtown Mall.

The account has seen as little as $653,107.50, at the end of fiscal 2004, to as much as roughly $4.3 million just last month. Less money has been going into it as the city deals with more difficult budgets with each passing cycle. At the beginning of fiscal 2008, about two years ago, $1.65 million was allocated from the city’s Capital Improvement Program. This year, $100,000 has been set aside.

The first part of Hillsdale Drive Extended is being built as a phase of the Whole Foods project, which is slated to bring a 40,000-square-foot grocery to one of the city’s prime corridors. The project’s backer, Meadowbrook Creek LLC, is developing the property at 1801 Hydraulic Road and will also build the first segment of the road stretching from Hydraulic Road to the store.

Watts said that developers would begin construction “as quickly as possible.”

In June, councilors came close to authorizing condemnation proceedings that could have eventually allowed the city government to seize private land for the road through eminent domain. To build the road, it was required that the land be designated for public use.

But the land’s fair-market value was agreed upon between the city and the property owner, Ivy resident Michie Bright, the day the item was to be taken up at the council’s June 15 meeting.

“It will be a public street,” Watts said Monday.

The entire road, estimated to cost $30.5 million, would eventually run from Hydraulic Road through the Seminole Square shopping center to Hillsdale Drive in Albemarle County. More than half the costs are because of right-of-way acquisition, though city officials have said many property owners have agreed verbally to give the land at no cost.

Mayor Dave Norris asked Watts for his best guess on when the city might get the rest of the funds needed to complete the road. Though the answer is unclear, Watts said that most of the road design funding has been spent and construction expenditures would need to come next.

Officials say the road would alleviate traffic on U.S. 29 by providing a parallel route, and it could also spur more economic development in the city. Councilor David Brown said at Monday’s meeting that the Southern Environmental Law Center, a regional environmental advocacy group, supported the funding transfer and Hillsdale Drive Extended’s construction.

It is estimated that the taxes generated by Whole Foods would make up for the investment in the first portion within six years, and Watts said that the project would create 325 jobs.

Appointments

Councilors also appointed Kurt Keesecker and John Santoski to the Planning Commission, a seven-member body that deals with land use, transportation and planning issues. Keesecker and Santoski will supplant Cheri Lewis and Mike Farruggio, who sat on the commission for eight and four years, respectively.

Andrew Williams, an independent write-in candidate for the City Council, had also sought to sit on the Planning Commission. Williams was one of nine to apply to fill one of the two vacancies, and has said that the outcome of his Planning Commission application would not shape his council candidacy.