Foundation to double Fontaine Research Park?

The University of Virginia Foundation, which manages University financial and real estate holdings, would like to double the size of the Fontaine Research Park. At the most recent Planning and Coordination Council meeting between City, County and UVA officials, Leonard Sandridge discussed University of Virginia Foundation plans to seek rezoning to add 500,000 square feet of construction to the seven-building office park, which is located on Fontaine Avenue just southwest of Charlottesville.
    An eighth building, the Advanced Research and Technology Building, is already under construction. When completed, it will increase current Fontaine space to 495,000 from 410,000 square feet. The Foundation, whose vast real estate holdings include the UVA Research Park and the Boar’s Head Inn, already have a request in to the County to add 30,000 square feet as an underground annex to the new building.
    And that’s not all: Dennis Rooker, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, says that the nearby Granger property developers (a group that includes Coran Capshaw), plan to file for zoning changes to allow 540,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of retail, and 440 residential housing units. The Granger property is located off Sunset Avenue, just west of Fry’s Spring.
    All together, current construction and future plans represent nearly 1.2 million square feet of commercial/retail space, and an additional 440 homes for the Albemarle County wedge between Fontaine, Route 29 and I-64.
    It would also mean a huge influx of cars. With this in mind, Rooker would like to see a detailed transportation study before approving any changes to the current comprehensive plan.
    “I want to make sure that whatever is planned for both those properties be examined at the same time,” says Rooker. “I think we need to understand the impacts on infrastructure and the cumulative impacts on everything that might be planned right now.”
    UVA has pledged to help with the local road situation. Sandridge said that “the University [is] supportive of the recommendations that included a new road that would lie adjacent to, and just east of, the [research] park, in the general vicinity of Stribling Avenue,” according to a statement from UVA spokesman Jeff Hanna.