The plot thickened Monday in the mysterious case of the Landmark Hotel.

At the corner of a folding table across from Lee Park, Charlottesville resident Lisa Eller gathered a dollop of collard greens with a piece of teff bread.

There’s no need to scrounge up airfare to Australia to immerse yourself in a dreamlike realm of heroes, creatures and epic stories straight from Aboriginal traditions. Just make an easy turn off bustling U.S. 250, glide up a quiet green hillside and allow yourself some time to linger among the bark paintings and canvases in the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection.

The city’s effort to exert more control over future development in downtown Charlottesville could backfire and deter growth, some developers say.
Charlottesville staff is seeking to decrease around downtown the number of units per acre a developer can build without getting special permission from the city. Last week the city’s Planning Commission endorsed setting new height limits on downtown buildings, in a bid to preserve the pedestrian-friendly character of the corridor.

One of the more controversial uses of taxpayer money in the Charlottesville budget is again stirring debate among councilors: How much should be spent on new signs?