The large gravel parking lot next to Charlottesville’s Amtrak station is likely headed for a smoother fate, according to those involved with paving negotiations.
“They have told us they intend to do it,” Jim Tolbert, director of the city’s Neighborhood Development Services, said Tuesday.
The bumpy lot at the corner of West Main and Seventh streets, on the eastern side of the train station, has been the subject of several different area groups’ attention — including businesses along West Main Street, the city government and backers of the new Amtrak passenger rail service that began in October. All of those parties, whether only recently or for years, have been imploring for the lot to be paved over with asphalt, whether it be to help customer traffic into businesses or to encourage rail ridership.
To park in the lot, run by Piedmont Virginia Parking Co., Amtrak customers must pay $5 per day and pay before they leave.
The 3.44-acre property at 820 W. Main St., owned by local developers Gabe Silver-man and Allan Cadgene, is also up for sale for $13.5 million. The city has had an approved preliminary site plan for the parking lot for roughly five years, but it was only last week that the final one was signed off by Tolbert.
Silverman could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. But the plan shows that the main Amtrak lot would have asphalt pavement and would contain 201 spaces, two of which would be for motorcycles. Also, 43 trees would be planted.
The city could not, and still can’t, legally force the lot’s owners to pave over the property.
Tolbert said, “That’s dependent on the owner. We cannot compel them to implement a site plan. If they do it, they have to do it according to that plan.”
Yet officials say they have reason to believe that it will happen, based on recent talks. City Attorney Craig Brown also said he believes the issue will get taken care of.
“It’ll be a question of weather, I think, in terms of when they do it,” Brown said in an interview last week.
Peter Castiglione, the owner of West Main Street’s Maya restaurant who has been pushing for the lot to be smoothed over, said he was also told that the goal was to have the lot paved in the spring.
Castiglione is a member of the Midtown Association, a group of residents and business owners who want to revitalize the West Main Street area instead of, in their view, it existing as an ignored connector between the University of Virginia and downtown.
“It’s really a matter of property owners pulling the trigger and actually making it happen,” Castiglione said. “I’m hoping it gets paved tomorrow. The sooner the better.”
The association has discussed the parking lot’s state at its meetings, said Eleanor Porter, co-owner of The Seasonal Cook and a Midtown Association member. But, she said, “It’s a lot more technical than just having the lot paved or not.”
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