Houses are built for people, and people generally must have jobs. Presumably in the mind of every local housing developer, perhaps tucked in a recess or perhaps beating violently at the fore, is the thought of how to catch some of the swarm of 800 government employees descending upon Albemarle County as the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) (www.avenue.org/ngic) expands its facility.
In May 2005, the Pentagon recommended as part of its realignment that certain select Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence analysis functions be relocated from Washington, D.C. to a new facility in Albemarle County. The recommendation was contingent on the acquisition of 48 acres next to the already existing site of the National Ground Intelligence Center off Route 29, two miles north of the Charlottesville airport. That acquisition was in turn contingent upon Albemarle County altering boundary lines in the existing growth area in northern Albemarle.
Get ready for longer lines at Target: The National Ground Intelligence Center will expand to a new 219,000-square-foot facility two miles north of the Charlottesville airport to accommodate over a thousand transferring Pentagon employees.
|
After a year of wrangling, the County Board of Supervisors agreed to do so, clearing the federal government to purchase the land from owner and über-developer Wendell Wood for $7 million. The concurrent sale opened the way for the eventual construction of a 219,000-square-foot facility that will house employees from the current NGIC center as well as relocated employees. The Joint Intelligence Analysis Center will potentially bring in 800 new employees beginning as early as 2010 and as a result the County has undertaken studies to examine the effect a new workforce will have upon the community.
“We’re looking at both the traffic and the housing impact as part of the Places29 Master Plan,” says Judith Wiegand, senior planner for Albemarle County. “If you can imagine a thousand more cars at 5 o’clock spilling out onto 29,” adds Sally Thomas, the lone member of the Board of Supervisors to vote against the boundary line change. She cites a potential staggering of work hours and carpooling as two options to help reduce the number of vehicles involved.
Then there is the matter of housing. Two planned mixed-use developments along Route 29N—Hollymead Town Center and North Pointe— stand to benefit. But the effect on housing is complicated by the transient nature of the workforce that will be flooding into Albemarle. Two-thirds will simply be relocated and it is unknown how many will choose to actually move into Albemarle, as the facility borders Greene County. There is even the chance that some employees will merely commute from their current housing. All the unknowns add to the importance of early planning and to that extent a late February workshop with the County Planning Commission will be the next step.