GO Start-Up Spotlight

Robert Johnson

Jonathan Vowles

Hyeyon Moon

Signay Shelton

Jahmila Riley

Amber Smith

Brandon Lee

Amber Smith Owner CAMPed Administrative Services

Amber Smith received her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Radford University and returned to the Charlottesville area after graduation. Here she began working in various roles with non-profit foundations, government contracting firms, and healthcare providers. She started independent contracting during the pandemic, providing administrative services to small businesses, musicians, and local grant writers. This sparked her journey into entrepreneurship, and she began taking steps to create CAMPed Administrative Services, starting with participating in the fall 2022 GO Start-Up program.

CAMPed Administrative Services, LLC is a Charlottesville-based administrative and concierge service provider. Their customers are small to medium-sized businesses, non-profit organizations, grant writers, and executive professionals. CAMPed provides Virtual Administrative

(VA) services to include tasks that typically overwhelm business owners, managers, and executives. Services are offered to provide a cost-effective option for customers who do not have the capital and/ or bandwidth to hire full or part-time employees.

When asked how GO Start-Up impacted her as an entrepreneur, Amber replied,

“The class gave me a group of people whom I can continue to work with and created a great support system for me. My classmates became a part of my small tribe.”

Parking Program

While much of the disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have subsided the ripple effects on parking demand downtown continue to be felt. Remote and hybrid work options have had an impact on transportation and commuting patterns. For example, many downtown office workers are still only coming into the office one or two days a week, resulting in additional available parking downtown. The Market Street Garage remains busy, but no longer closes midday on high volume days as had become a regular occurrence prior to the pandemic. The Water Street Garage now has available capacity having suffered the loss of a major downtown employer and the pandemic impact simultaneously.

While this is helpful for folks who want to park downtown, it has put a financial strain on the Parking Fund. The City has, however, chosen not to raise rates at this time. With other inflationary pressures on the local economy, it is an opportunity for the City to hold fees steady in the interest of residents, businesses and visitors.

Instead, the City is making good use of the empty space and proceeding with some major capital repairs to both garages. The Market Street Garage repairs are scheduled to begin in March of 2023 and will last five months. In the process, there will be close coordination with the repair crews with only limited areas of the garage impacted at any one time. In addition, work will be scheduled around major events to be sure the demand for public parking is always met. This is a one-time project funded through the City’s capital repair budget. In addition, a major capital repair project for the Water Street Garage is also underway. This project began in October 2022 and will continue into March of 2023. Much work has been completed already with very limited impact on customers. This is the first year of a fiveyear repair program that was necessary because no such major repairs had been undertaken since the garage was built in the early 1990s. These repairs are being funded by the Parking Fund solely from customer revenues and should guarantee the safety and serviceability of the facility for the next 20 years or more.

Finally, the City will be turning over control of the 7th Street Lot to Albemarle County on February 1, 2023. This will be the last step in honoring the City’s parking obligations to the County as part of a larger agreement to expand the courts system downtown. Alternative parking has been offered to 7th Street Lot customers and a smooth transition is anticipated. Additionally, the City has acquired a new surface parking lot at 921 East Jefferson Street. The 40-space lot is a short walk from City Hall and the Mall and provides an additional alternative for downtown parking. Both lots will offer free parking in the evenings and on weekends.

For more detailed information on parking, visit our website at: www.charlottesville.gov/239/Parking-Information.