Divided Council raises rates

A split City Council early today narrowly approved increasing the speeding fine on three Charlottesville streets by $200.

In other business during a Monday night meeting that lasted past midnight, councilors agreed to raise residents’ water, sewer and heating bills, and declined to commit to funding a $200,000 to $300,000 study of the feasibility of building a streetcar from downtown to Barracks Road.

By a 3-2 vote, councilors decided to enact the new speeding fines starting in September on Elliott Avenue, Brandywine Drive and Franklin Street. That fine will be on top of the $61 court fee and a $7 charge for every mile per hour over the speed limit.

The city started leveling the extra $200 fine last September on Old Lynchburg Road, from the city limits to Jefferson Park Avenue; Avon Street, from the city limits to Monticello Avenue; and Altavista Avenue, from Monticello Avenue to Avon Street.

Three of the councilors - Mayor Dave Norris and Councilors David Brown and Holly Edwards - said the new fines were likely to deter speeders and make the streets safer for pedestrians.

But the effectiveness of the fines is not clear. The speed at which 85 percent of vehicles traveling on the three roads that received the fines last year has decreased by an average of 2 mph.

Councilors Satyendra Huja and Julian Taliaferro said that minor drop did not justify bumping up the fines by so much money on other streets, potentially hurting low-income residents who have little disposable income.

Councilors were similarly divided on whether to devote taxpayer money to a study of a proposed streetcar system, with councilors Huja and Taliaferro supportive and the other three wary of the idea.

A three-mile streetcar system from the Downtown Transit Station to the Barracks Road Shopping Center would likely cost more than $70 million.

Proponents of the system say it would take cars off the road and spark development along West Main Street. Even if a streetcar system is not viable in the next few years, the city should start the exploration process so as to be able to compete for federal funding, Taliaferro said.

“If we want to be prepared in the event that the feds release some money, we would be in a better position if we had the study done,” he said.

But others say that in a slowed economy the city cannot afford to spend several hundred thousand dollars on studying a system that might not be feasible. Federal funding may be a long shot, and it would be hard to locally raise $70 million, skeptics say.

“The places that have done [streetcars] are places that have funding sources we don’t have,” Brown said.

Norris and Edwards both signaled they are intrigued by a streetcar system, but would like to wrap any study into a larger look at the region’s transit service - a process that will begin later this year.

City residents will soon see their utility bills jump slightly.

The average monthly household water bill will go up from $34.30 to $36.02; the average monthly sewer bill will rise from $30.86 to $33.43; and the average bill for customers of city gas -  which includes Albemarle County customers - will jump from $141.43 to $148.95 per month.