ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 28, 1996 TAG: 9611290105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charlottesville has been a city for 108 years, but a petition filed by residents could turn it back into just another Albemarle County town.
The petition, containing 3,435 signatures, was filed Tuesday in Circuit Court.
``The independent city is an outmoded idea. It's time to move on,'' said William Lucy, one of the petition effort's leaders.
The filing is the second time a 1988 state statute allowing cities to become towns has been invoked. In 1995, South Boston became a town within Halifax County.
State law allows an independent city with fewer than 50,000 people to revert to a town, allowing it to annex land and consolidate services such as courts with those of the surrounding county.
The reversion process is being driven by the city's finances. Mayor Kay Slaughter said that while Charlottesville is currently financially stable, ``looking 10 years out, we see a financial crunch for the city.''
Slaughter said the city's deficit could reach $9 million by then because of its inability to expand its tax base and because its services probably will be in greater demand.
The city also is limited in how it can respond to its financial problems. City boundaries have been frozen since a legislative ban on annexation nine years ago.
The county, which is fiscally robust, has been helping the city for years. Charlottesville has had a revenue-sharing agreement with Albemarle since 1982, resulting in the county's paying the city $32 million so far, said Charlotte Humphris, chairwoman of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.
If reversion occurred, the new town still would have a council, which would levy taxes and oversee services such as a police department. Town residents would vote in county elections and would pay county taxes in addition to their town taxes.
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