Lynchburg City Council to take on Daniel’s Hill bus service

Lynchburg City Council will take up the issue of Daniel’s Hill bus service when it meets on Tuesday.

Council will entertain a proposal that calls for a peak-hour-only shuttle service to be established for the Daniel’s Hill neighborhood, which lost its own regular bus route earlier this year after the D Street bridge closed, reducing access to the community.

The Greater Lynchburg Transit Company is recommending the shuttle. Residents of Daniel’s Hill also backed it during an earlier neighborhood meeting on the subject.

GLTC is proposing to pull funding for the service from a surplus of state money that has not yet been allocated. Council is being asked to endorse the plan.

Officials will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 900 Church St.

Other issues on the agenda include plans to build a church playground across the street from West Lynchburg Baptist Church.

West Lynchburg is proposing to build a small, fenced-in playground on the corner of Eldon Street and Langhorne Lane. The project will be dedicated as a memorial to former parishioner Jason Scheuerman, a soldier who committed suicide three years ago while serving in Iraq.

Scheuerman, 20, was an active member of West Lynchburg, participating in mission trips and volunteering with the children’s Bible school program. The proposed playground will be named JJ’s Playground in his honor.

A public hearing on the church’s plans will be held prior to council beginning discussion.

Also on Tuesday, council will be asked to amend an existing contract with the local real estate group Invest Lynchburg LLC.

Last year, the city agreed to sell the company a stretch of Jefferson Street property for development as condos.

The contract stipulates the project’s first phase must be complete by late 2010. The sale has not yet been concluded, though, and the company is now seeking reprieve from that deadline.

City Manager Kimball Payne said unexpected issues, such as an easement that had to be renegotiated, delayed the final transfer of the property.

Invest Lynchburg is requesting the contract language be amended to state construction must be started by 2010, rather than complete. City staff are also suggesting council consider adding a first-right-of-refusal clause, which will ensure the city has a chance to re-acquire the property if the company wanted to dispose of it one day.

Preliminary plans shown to council last year called for as many as 80 condos in buildings as high as 10 stories. Invest Lynchburg described it as a high-end project that would include first-floor retail space.

Payne said the company remained “anxious” to move forward with the project.

“Obviously, that’s gratifying in the current environment,” he said, referencing the nation’s economic crash. “We’re looking forward to getting this thing closed.”