The Charlottesville City Council held its final regular meeting of the month Monday evening, where a presentation from City staff detailed that Charlottesville’s greenhouse gas emissions have been consistently on the rise since 2022.
The update for Council members was presented during a work session that began at 4 p.m. In the presentation, staff also highlighted some of the City’s recent efforts to reduce these emissions. Further, Council members supported a proposal to request funds from the Virginia Department of Transportation for redeveloping an intersection near the Downtown Mall.
Vice Mayor Natalie Oschrin presided over the meeting Monday, as Mayor Juandiego Wade was traveling and unable to attend in-person or online.
As of 2019, there are two targets the City is working to meet as it reduces its greenhouse gas emissions — reducing emissions to 45 percent of its 2011 figure by 2030, and achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Council members further adopted a Climate Action Plan in 2023 that lays out how the City can achieve these goals. As part of the CAP, City staff and the Office of Sustainability must create actionable work plans for reducing emissions and report on this progress every year to the Council.
Before presenting on the City’s progress, Emily Irvine, Charlottesville’s Climate Protection Program manager, warned that Charlottesville’s greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise. According to Irvine, emissions in the City in 2024 were creeping upwards from “pandemic-driven” lows in 2020. Charlottesville’s emissions in 2024 were roughly 5 percent higher than the year prior, and about 13 percent higher than in 2020. However, this figure is still far lower than the City’s total emissions from before the pandemic.
Irvine’s presentation cited several “primary drivers” behind this rise in emissions, including a greater emission impact from trucks and motorcycles in the City post-pandemic. Further, Irvine pointed to an increase in emissions caused by electricity since 2023, suggesting that energy providers are utilizing natural gas to meet a higher demand for electricity.
Irvine then presented on some of the Climate Program’s “wins” in progressing towards the City’s CAP goals in FY 26. These wins included the completion of a 478-panel solar array atop the Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center. The solar array went into service in the fall and is currently the largest running solar system in the City. Irvine also noted that two larger systems are planned for Charlottesville Middle School and Charlottesville High School, with installation set for completion by the end of 2027. The City also “welcomed” the two first electric school buses in FY 26.
More community-facing “wins” Irvine noted include the Energy Resource Hub — a service which helps to educate community members and connect them with solar energy options — and the addition of tiers to the City’s E-bike voucher program to ensure more residents can afford E-bikes with their vouchers. The Climate Program also supports environmental friendly events throughout the year, such as the Rivanna RiverFest.
“Even though we’re not yet seeing a steady decrease of our emissions, I do think we are contributing to improving affordability and quality of life for our community members,” Irvine said. “Systems changes [are] really hard, and I do feel like we’re trying to do our part here.”
Irvine said that there are a total of 134 action goals in the CAP and the City has completed 25 and begun work on 76 so far.
The City is also developing a plan designed to help mitigate and adapt to the current impacts of climate change, according to Irvine. Charlottesville’s new draft of this plan is the product of the “Resilient Together” project — a two-year research, engagement and strategy development effort shared and carried out by the City, the University and Albemarle County to help all three develop climate change mitigation and adaptation plans of their own. According to Irvine, the draft of the plan is expected to be finalized by the late summer or early fall and at that point, there will be a public feedback period.
Council members also endorsed a Smart Scale application the City is developing with guidance from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Smart Scale is the process used in the Commonwealth to evaluate which transportation projects are most worthy of funding, based on factors like how the project will reduce congestion and increase safety.
The application will request VDOT funding to redevelop the intersection at Ridge Street, West Main Street and West Water Street near the Downtown Mall. If the project moves forward, it would likely see West Water Street and South Street West reduced from two lane to one-way roads, and the addition of a plaza, as well as bike-friendly features and more parking, according to CVille Right Now.
During the “Community Matters” segment of the meeting — the portion in which up to 16 members of the public can address the Council for three minutes each — some residents expressed concern that this change would increase congestion near the Mall.
Ludwig Kuttner, a developer and resident of Water Street, said he came to Charlottesville in 1981 when the Mall was a “disaster” and few people went downtown. Kuttner said he attributes the Mall’s previous commercial failure to the fact that Water Street and Market Street were one-way roads at the time, which “made maneuvering downtown difficult.”
“Why do we want to go and repeat past mistakes? … I think there is a group that perceives it is dangerous [to drive] downtown,” Kuttner said. “I would be extremely surprised to learn that the two-way on Water Street is the heart of [that] problem.”
City resident Michael Kaplan urged Council members not to move forward with the redevelopment proposal until obtaining more information. According to Kaplan, VDOT staff said at its most recent public meeting on the project April 27 that they helped the City craft the proposal without considering the plan’s impact on nearby streets further down the road. These included West 1st Street, West 2nd Street, South Street and 2nd Street East.
“At this time it is impossible to know whether the plan solves [the pedestrian and bike safety] problem, or merely moves the problem a few blocks down the street,” Kaplan said. “It’s entirely possible that the plan will create more problems than it claims to fix.”
Also during Community Matters, Laura Sirgany, interim coordinator of the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women's Center and Charlottesville community member, spoke on the treatment of the City’s unhoused population. Sirgany previously spoke at the May 18 meeting and June 1 meeting.
Sirgany returned to share requests with the Council for specific policy changes on behalf of unhoused residents. Sirgany also said she was speaking on behalf of an unhoused friend of hers named Tony who had hoped to speak at the meeting but passed away last week. Sirgany asked Council members to ensure that portable toilets, access to clean drinking water and dumpsters and trash cans are available for large communities of unhoused residents, such as those camping along Rivanna Trail.
Sirgany further asked the Council to “take U.Va. to task” for alleged discrimination against unhoused patients at U.Va. Health. Sirgany said that numerous unhoused residents told her they were sent “into the streets” after medical operations instead of being allowed to recover. Further, she asked the City to increase the number of allowed camping areas if it wishes to prevent large numbers of unhoused residents from congregating in any one space.
“I want to believe that this city is capable of building a community of care instead of perpetuating systems of harm,” Sirgany said. “With Tony not able to be here tonight, I feel I owe it to him to remind us all that it is our responsibility and our job — every one of us — to create that community of care.”
The Council will not reconvene for its next regular meeting until July 20, affording members a roughly month-long summer break. The regular meeting schedule can be found on the City’s website.
Luca Bailey is a third-year Politics student from Free Union, Va. As a staffer on the news and video desks, he has covered topics ranging from the General Assembly and state elections to local politics and University governance. He is also The Cavalier Daily’s beat writer for the Charlottesville City Council.
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