Last-minute tweaks to Great Eastern Management’s plans for the 269-acre North Pointe development will delay a vote on the controversial project until next month.
GEM amended its application on Wednesday, May 10—the same day the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors was scheduled to vote on the company’s proposal for a mixed-use development-community (nearly 675,000 square feet of retail space, an elementary school, library and 900 residential units, 84 of which GEM designates as affordable “workforce housing”). The 11th-hour changes forced the board, as a matter of procedure, to postpone the vote until June 7.
North Pointe faces major obstacles. County development staff advised against approval, reporting a long list of problems with the plan related to traffic flow on Route 29N and Proffit Road, the project’s lack of affordable housing and an overall excess of commercial space in the county. In general, planners concluded that North Pointe was just another example of a sprawling suburban development, all parking lots and big-box stores, with superficial attempts to meet the County’s planning guidelines.
“Sidewalks don’t make a livable community,” said County planner Elaine Echols.
The promise of a resolution to the North Pointe development, now six years in the works, drew an audience of well over 300 to Wednesday’s board meeting at Burley Middle School, with dozens offering opinions for and against the project.
Chuck Rotgin, president of GEM, claimed North Pointe “creates a great paradigm for creating a new community in Albemarle County.”
Other North Pointe supporters—many connected to the contracting and housing industry—touted themselves as champions of “affordable housing” and claimed North Pointe would help teachers, secretaries, nurses and firefighters.
Residents and environmental groups disagreed, painting the project as good for a few and bad for everyone else. “The definition of affordable housing is a joke here,” said Charlie Trachta, an Albemarle resident.
The board will vote on June 7. In the meantime, GEM and the County will hold another “work session,” where the parties will address the concerns of the meeting and the staff report.—Amy Kniss