As the Charlottesville City Council prepares to discuss incentives to spur the completion of a long-dormant luxury hotel project on the Downtown Mall, the two largest garages downtown were closed for brief periods throughout the day recently because of an excess of activity and traffic in the vicinity.

 

In an interview last week, a former city mayor who is now the chief representative of a parking management company that has been engaged in a nearly yearlong legal battle with the city said those kinds of closures could happen more frequently if the city continues to leave the company in the dark about negotiations with Dewberry Capital, the developer of the Landmark Hotel.