By Will Goldsmith, Erika Howsare and Meg McEvoy
More than anything else, the big zoning changes enacted earlier this decade in both Charlottesville and Albemarle are about density. The idea: Cluster development near work centers, pack all the new people into as little space as they will accept, and locate places to shop nearby so they don’t need to drive their cars every inch of the way. The County wanted growth to follow the “neighborhood model.” That’s a concept from New Urbanism planning theory that would transform the classic single-family home subdivision into a “village,” complete with its own shopping area. Additionally, the housing types would be mixed so that people of many income ranges could find a place there. The City, meanwhile, rezoned several areas to allow for more density and created mixed-use corridors. Officials wanted a mix of street-front retail and upper-level housing that would create vibrant, pedestrian-friendly, urban streets.
But, after a rush to rezone neighborhood model villages and propose nine-storey buildings, it seems that government officials might be growing uneasy about these designs. In the county, the public gets crankier about traffic and disappearing rural vistas, not to mention new neighborhoods that have anything but a town-center feel. And in the city, officials have started to understand what perhaps might have been anticipated—namely that tall buildings could block sunlight and towering condos might be within reach of only the wealthy. Will 2007 be the year of the backhoe? Will the humongous projects already approved, such as Old Trail in Crozet, Albemarle Place and North Pointe on 29N, Belvedere on Rio Road, and the nine-storey projects on Water and Avon streets, actually get built? Or will 2007 be the year planners and developers sleep off the rezoning hangover? Will the slowing housing market quell construction on its own?
To get a better handle on what’s to come, we present the forecasts of 11 players in the local development game. They are a blend of private developers, nonprofit do-gooders, governmental officials and loudmouth locals, who, we can confidently predict, will have a lot to do with what actually happens over the course of 2007. Whether we get denser—either in terms of population or in the way we think about development—is largely up to them.
Additional resources: Development Map-County of Albemarle; Development Map-City of Charlottesville
Biscuit Run: This too shall pass?
In all his days representing developers and their developments, attorney Steven Blaine tells us he’s never had a project as much discussed as Biscuit Run. Rezoning for the 3,100-unit village (designed according to the County’s ever-embraceable neighborhood model and planned for just south of Charlottesville) promises to be the biggest story of 2007.
Last year, locals packed meetings on Biscuit Run, spouting off at every opportunity about the havoc it will wreak on local roads. Many were unsettled by the size of the project, too. As County planning commissioners and supervisors draw closer to a vote (possibly in the first half of this year), expect the firestorm to continue.
What’s the fuss about? Sure, it’s 920 acres of farmland, previously owned by Elizabeth Breeden and her late husband, David, but the land is in a designated growth area, where the County has said it wants to encourage development. Developers are offering to pay for millions of dollars in road improvements to alleviate the inevitable traffic it will create—a practical necessity given the sorry state of transportation funding coming out of Richmond.
Part of the problem, besides the fact that no one likes development when it’s in their backyard, is the so-called neighborhood model. “We have this model on paper and we haven’t seen it implemented yet,” says Brian Wheeler, who, as executive director of Charlottesville Tomorrow, is a development watchdog. “I think one of the questions will be, does the pipeline just keep growing with more projects, or at some point does the County say, ‘The timing isn’t right for this rezoning. It’s a good plan, but there’s plenty of housing in the pipeline. Let’s get some of that built.’”
Nine storeys: Too “massive” an appeal?
Now that the City has approved several nine-storey buildings Downtown, “it’s got them wondering if they have a good thing or not,” Wheeler says. Certainly not every City planning commissioner or member of the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) was thrilled last year. The big issues for the condo project at 201 Avon St., for instance? Massing and parking. This despite the fact that nine storeys are allowed by right and, in order to encourage fewer cars, the building didn’t need to include a parking spot for every condo (though, for marketing reasons, the developer chose to do so).
Jim Tolbert, director of City Neighborhood Development Services, thinks there’s been an uptick in projects not because of the actual changes in zoning that allow for more density but because of the message the new zoning sends. “I don’t know that we’ve had a project built since 2003 that could not have been built pre-2003,” says Tolbert, noting that nine-storey buildings were allowed previously. Moreover, the new zonings coincided nicely with a “pretty good upturn in the economy.”
Only in the University area does he see a big change. “We’re seeing what we hoped there—which is some of the older, worn-out residential properties go away and be replaced by new stuff. But otherwise—I think it’s more a factor of the economy than anything our ordinance did.”
But, undeniably, the city—and its viewshed—is changing. “One of the things I’ve noticed is you can’t see the mountains from [the east] end of the Mall anymore, and as these buildings come up, it’s going to change our view of the world from Downtown,” says Wheeler.
Eye of the hurricane?
It will take more than one year to see the density story take hold, sources say. Last fall, Jeff Werner at the Piedmont Environmental Council calculated that 17,832 housing units were in the pipeline, using figures confirmed in most instances by County staffers. Those numbers have changed—Biscuit Run’s plans are reduced by 400 units now, and many of those other houses have already been built. Still, even if that drops the number to 17,000, it remains a startling figure.
But what does it really mean? If 2.4 people (the county average per housing unit) live in those 17,000 units, that represents 40,800 new people—another Charlottesville. Using a range of population projections, Werner calculates that the 17,832 units he cites will meet local needs for the next 32 to 46 years. That pipeline shows “just how much has been approved and how little is getting built at the moment,” in the words of Wheeler.
Werner uses those figures to call into question whether the County, in particular, should continue to approve rezonings, whether the current growth plan is really achieving the density intended. Expressing their frustration over transportation funding, supervisors in Northern Virginia’s Prince William and Loudon counties have passed yearlong deferrals of new residential rezonings. While Northern Virginia’s 14 percent growth rate from 2000 to 2005 trumps the Charlottesville area’s 8 percent growth rate, one can’t but wonder: Are we next in line for road-clogging, environment-wrecking, soul-crushing growth?
The analogy Wheeler uses for our predicament after approving a large number of rezonings in 2006 is that we’re in the eye of the hurricane. “When the other wall of the hurricane hits us is when ground is broken on all these developments all at once.” Make sure you’re wearing a hard hat.—W.G.
11 players in the local development game:
Steven Blaine | Morgan Butler | David Slutzky | Joe Jones | Wendell Wood | Tim Rose | Wade Tremblay | Cheri Lewis | Overton McGehee | Kevin Lynch | Peter Kleeman
The Rainmaker Steven Blaine
Job: Attorney, usually representing developers
Arena: County
A local development player since: 1985
Got into it through: the overtures of Leigh Middleditch, “a very persuasive and fair-minded person,” who recruited Blaine to return from Boston to McGuireWoods’ office in Charlottesville. Blaine had attended UVA for his undergraduate degree and, knowing the wonders of Charlottesville, was that much more susceptible to Middleditch’s persuasions. Blaine joined the Charlottesville office of LeClair Ryan in 1999.
Most recent accomplishment: “Land development can be transformational—it’s often many years after your efforts that it turns out,” says Blaine, citing Keswick as an example. He attended a party at Keswick recently and says, “It was rewarding seeing them and how the community has turned out.”
Current big project: Biscuit Run. “I never get tired of talking about Biscuit Run,” says Blaine, who can’t think of another development he’s been involved in that has gotten as much attention. “It’s the thing that’s keeping me quite busy.”
Blaine had better not tire of talking about Biscuit Run: That 920-acre development, bought in 2005 for $46 million by investors who include Hunter Craig, is expected to create 3,100 housing units over a 15-year period. Public comment at meetings thus far has ranged from the politely critical to the viscerally disgusted—yet Blaine is ever poised in discussions.
“We see that process unfolding basically as we expected,” Blaine says, who sees it as a perfect opportunity to put the neighborhood model in effect. “You’re not very likely to have your own self-contained community with 50 acres. With 700 acres, you can actually have a community that can be sustained. So that’s a huge opportunity for the county, not just our client.”
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “I think Biscuit Run will be approved,” Blaine says. “I think it’s a unique aligning of the stars. We can see growth is going to continue. And I think people recognize there has to be a place for those people to live. By the time homes are being built, it will be responding to a healthier local real estate market.”
Moving to a broader perspective, Blaine believes “there’s going to be a good trend continuing in terms of development opportunities for the housing authority to reach that first rung of home ownership, in addition to public housing, which is really our threshold for housing in the community.” He also sees an improving City-County-University partnership in the area of transit. “I think there’s a real good chance that we’ll have something we probably should have had a long time ago, a coordinated, integrated transit system.”
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Vociferous citizens; Statewide trends, particularly in Northern Virginia, against approving more development; Efforts from the Piedmont Environmental Council and others to persuade County officials that enough housing units have already been approved recently.
People would be surprised to know: Blaine once had a summer job at Wolf Trap and was an extra in the opera Aida—Blaine had to stand on a crucifix in a loin cloth before a packed audience. “Looking back on that now, it probably prepared me well for public hearings.”
The Environmentalist Morgan Butler
Job: Attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)
Arena: City and county projects, advocating for environmental protections and “smart growth”
A local development player since: 2005
Got into it through: taking “every environmental law course I could” at UVA Law School. In 2005, he moved back to Charlottesville to take a job with the SELC, which handles environmental issues in a six-state region, and soon became director of SELC’s new Charlottesville-Albemarle Project.
Most recent accomplishment: The Charlottesville-Albemarle Project recently released a retail study showing the explosiveness of commercial growth. “When these requests for rezonings come before the County, they are looked at on an individual basis,” Butler says. “The County just didn’t have the information to do the big picture yet.” So, Butler’s team did the homework and found that 3.3 million square feet of commercial development is approved or under review—roughly three times the upper limit of sustainable growth.
Current big project: Expanding the Charlottesville-Albemarle Pro-ject. “In light of how rapidly the area has begun to transform over the past few years, we decided to launch this project that would take our regional expertise in land-use issues and really focus it in on our hometown.” This includes showing up at Council and Supervisors meetings and both planning commissions. “We are at our heart a legal group, but we also have policy expertise that we bring to bear on these issues.”
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “We’re going to spend the next year continuing to grapple with these large-scale development proposals that pose the greatest risk to our region. That includes ensuring not just local land-use policies, but that the decisions implementing those policies are based upon principles like guiding growth to the growth areas, in the county as well as the city. Part of that is ensuring the projects that get approved will help make [the growth] areas more functional, desirable places to live, rather than just sprawling, congested masses of cars and parking lots and department stores.
“Another focus is going to be preserving the area’s rural character by advancing proposals like the mountain protection ordinance and expanding the County’s conservation easement program.”
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Locals who want a Home Depot nearby; Developers who offer the County a lot of cash to get their way; Property owners who oppose the mountaintop ordinance he favors; Remaining relevant so that government officials don’t ignore him.
People would be surprised to know: The SELC isn’t anti-growth. On the contrary, “We do think development has the potential to be a key player in shaping an attractive future for this community. It’s just the question of making sure development’s done in the right way, in a thoughtful way.”
The Free Thinker David Slutzky
Job: Self-described “new guy” on the County Board of Supervisors; President of a land-use consulting firm; UVA adjunct professor in urban and environmental planning Arena: County
A local development player since: 2006
Got into it through: working on a still incomplete dissertation while a political philosophy graduate student at the University of Chicago. His idea was that by reconstructing our conception of self we might get out of the current biospheric crisis—we’re too willing to discount the adverse impacts of human action because they’re a cost burden borne by others.
But Slutzky, who moved to Albemarle County in 1993, says he grew sad seeing growth overtake the county. “I used to walk around the house grousing about this, that, or the other thing, and one day my wife said, ‘Why don’t you quit talking about it and go do something about it?’”
Most recent accomplishment: Elected to the Board of Supervisors.
Current big project: Protecting the rural areas from development by creating a transferable development rights (TDR) program. It would allow for landowners in the rural area to sell development rights to developers around the growth area. The trick is to make a market for development rights that works; part of Slutzky’s plan to do that is to add an additional 1 percent—4,650 acres—to the growth areas of the county (already encompassing 5 percent). Slutzky says he’s willing to give up that 1 percent to growth in order to protect the other 94 percent.
“If we don’t move forward now, then what the hell are we doing to protect the rural areas?” He is also a supporter of a mountain overlay district, but feels it’s not enough. “[TDR]’s way beyond what phasing and clustering promised to do—but what it actually does is protect the rural areas, which I’m not sure [those proposals] did.”
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “There’s nothing specifically that’s going to happen in the next year that hasn’t been happening, but when you compound the next several years, and [the National Ground Intelligence Center], we’re reaching a crisis moment. And we absolutely have to do something proactive to protect the rural areas of the county, or they’ll be lost forever.
“I think the biggest two factors that are going to impact development in the county in the next year or so will be: One, what, if anything, the County decides to do to constrain the development that’s occurring in the rural areas, which of course is what my TDR proposal is all about.
“The second is the [regional] transit [authority]. We’re in the process now of envisioning what this new transit system can look like. We stepped into a very interesting process, the result of which will be a phenomenal amenity for the growth area and the city that make them infinitely more desirable places to live in than they currently are, and I don’t think that will stimulate growth so much as redirect growth from the rural areas back into the growth areas where they belong.”
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Lack of enthusiasm for a complex TDR plan that requires State legislative changes; Conservative supes unwilling to limit rural-area property use; Liberal supes who believe his plan is sprawl by another name; His own political inexperience.
The Ruralist Joe Jones
Job: Local farmer, president of the Albemarle County Farm Bureau
Arena: Rural areas in the county
A local development player since: the 1970s
Got into it through: having a lot of land and little cash. “It’s not just here, but kind of a national statistic that three-fourths of the farmers have off-farm incomes, and that is because we like the farms. We’ve grown up with it, and we’re subsidizing the farming operations with other types of work in order to hang on to the land.” Jones lives on his family’s 225-acre farm in White Hall, where he raises hay and beef cattle. Even as Jones’ Bureau represents farmers who face an economic dilemma in trying to hang on to family land, it also speaks out for their right to sell it when they see fit.
Most recent accomplishment: Last August, the Bureau took out a prominent newspaper ad urging citizens to attend an informational session on the County phasing and clustering proposals—contributing to their failure to pass the Board of Supervisors. “We felt that it was our duty to inform the public,” says Jones. “Up until then my neighbors weren’t aware of what phasing was”—a proposal that, from the bureau’s viewpoint, would amount to property theft.
Current big project: Carefully monitoring other efforts to “preserve” the rural areas. When County Supervisor David Slutzsky held a press conference on October 3 to discuss his Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) initiative, Jones was there to indicate the Farm Bureau’s guarded support for the plan. “We were and are kind of intrigued with the idea of the TDR,” he says. “We see that as a potential fair way to get our building market value out of the land and have the development clustered in growth areas and preserve the farmland more”—the tricky balance of interests, in other words, that the bureau is trying to secure on behalf of local farmers. “A lot’s going to depend on the details and how the County would set up the mechanism to do the transferring and sale of the development rights,” says Jones. “We’re definitely on the fence and not on either side yet.”
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “We want to protect what property rights we currently have and keep from being swamped by future regulations,” says Jones. This means the bureau supports continuing land-use taxation of agricultural land and will keep an eye on the TDR discussion. “It seems that the citizens in general want to give us a lot of protection and they want to give our lands protection,” he says. “Usually that involves some form of restriction on what we can do with a property. We’d like to see the rural character just as much as anybody else. I’m not pro-development, but I am pro-family and pro-farm.”
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Groups trying to increase zoning restrictions to preserve the rural areas—including several supervisors and planning commissioners; Manpower (“We don’t have the paid people like environmental groups”).
People would be surprised to know: Jones’ presidency is a volunteer position—only at the State level are there paid Farm Bureau employees.
The Mogul Wendell Wood
Job: President, United Land Corporation of America
Arena: County, Route 29N
A local development player since: 1961
Got into it through: “Just started doing it,” says Wood. As a boy, Wood worked the midnight shift at a snack bar his parents owned on Route 29 and Barracks Road—then on the outskirts of Charlottesville. His first development was at Barracks Road, introducing Lord Hardwicke’s and Shakey’s Pizza Parlor. From there, he expanded his property holdings up Route 29 and built along the way, from the Albemarle Square shopping center to the Hollymead shopping center.
“I couldn’t leave now if I wanted to,” says Wood. “And I don’t want to.”
Most recent accomplishment: Built infrastructure—roads, water and sewer—for the expansion of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC).
Current big project: Applying for further rezonings for the Hollymead Town Center. He is selling 350 lots in the Briarwood development and 300 lots in Hollymead to national building company Ryan Homes, and says he’s close to selling an additional 700 there—“as soon as we get approval from the County,” says Wood. The final site plan for the North Town Center, with 200,000 square feet of commercial space to be built across from Lowe’s on Route 29, will come before the Planning Commission.
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: Wood is negotiating for an upscale hotel in a facility next door to NGIC as well as to build nearby offices for contractors. “We’re always doing something—that’s what we do. You have to have four or five projects at all times, because at any given time, you may hit a snag on one or two of them.”
Wood is concerned about an anti-growth crowd he believes would like to limit options for the next generation. “I think it’s a shame to be locked out because a certain crowd wants to restrict jobs and restrict growth—they’re not stopping it, they’re just adding to the cost of doing it. We can’t have only wealthy people in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, that just won’t work either—but we’re heading in that direction. When your firemen and your policemen and your schoolteachers can’t live in Albemarle County, then the system breaks down. Who’s going to cut the grass?
“We need jobs—we can’t keep selling hamburgers to each other. We’ve got to have the NGICs, we have to have the G.E.s, we got to have the University—thank heavens for the University.” Because of those engines, Wood believes that regardless what happens in the national market, the local market should continue to remain strong.
Likely obstacles he’ll face: The requirements of the “neighborhood model”; Sprawl concerns from some County supes and slow-growth groups; Possible downturns in the market; Competition for NGIC housing and commerce from Greene County and other Albemarle County developments.
People would be surprised to know: “I don’t think that I’m interesting enough to people that anybody cares.”
The Quiet Giant Tim Rose
Job: CEO of the UVA Foundation
Arena: Anywhere the University of Virginia holds—or is interested in holding—property throughout the city and county
A local development player since: 1992, when he became CEO
Got into it through: serving as an assistant vice president at UVA. The UVA Foundation “was created as a result of the University’s desire to create a mechanism that could creatively manage real estate activities to support the University. Our work is done to support the University’s primary programs, to provide an investment return, to provide for real estate needs of the University over the next 100 years, and to improve the University’s boundaries and entrances,” according to an e-mail from Rose. The Foundation handles UVA’s $230 million in real estate holdings and has processed over $60 million in real estate gifts since 1992.
Most recent accomplishment: This fall, the foundation finished constructing the Town Center II building, located in the Fontaine Research Park. It will house companies with a relationship to UVA, such as the Battelle Memorial Institute, a science and laboratory management company.
Current big project: The new Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center at Jefferson Park Avenue and Lee Street. For this, they’ll take down the existing West Parking Garage and build a new parking facility on W. Main Street.
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: New projects on the horizon include an Advanced Research and Technology Building (ART) at Fontaine Research Park: a $38 million, 85,000-square-foot research facility (bringing Fontaine to a whopping 565,000 square feet, with more on the way). Also in the works is a $10 million addition to the Boar’s Head Inn, adding meeting space and a 6,000-square-foot ballroom—big enough for all of UVA’s big donors and their spouses to do the Virginia Reel.
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Rising construction costs; Complaints from neighborhood associations that don’t want parking decks in their back yards; Pushback from City and County government if UVA doesn’t deliver on promises—like a mixed-use building to hide the parking facility on West Main.
People would be surprised to know: “We only have one customer—the University of Virginia.”
The Landlord Wade Tremblay
Job: Manager/Owner of Wade Apartments; Member of the Board of Architectural Review
Arena: City, redeveloping in the University area. A local development player since: 1978
Got into it through: returning to run the family business—he had been working at a bank in Northern Virginia after college and grad school in New England. Wade Apartments was started by Tremblay’s maternal grandfather, C.M. Wade, in 1926 for student housing. “When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to get out of Charlottesville and would have sworn on a stack of Bibles I wouldn’t be back. You get away, a little perspective, and no regrets at all coming back then nor since. If anything, Charlottesville has only gotten better.”
Most recent accomplishment: Completing Wertland Square, with 50 apartments—or 152 bedrooms. “I think the important number to keep in mind is bedrooms,” says Tremblay, explaining that it gives a more accurate idea of the number of people involved.
Current big project: Jefferson Commons, along Jefferson Park Avenue (JPA), with 80 bedrooms. He expects it to be on line by August. Tremblay has two other projects on the drawing board in the University area.
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “The University is growing its student population only at about 150 students a year. What that doesn’t take into account, though, is all the related University growth that you see going on as new athletic arenas get built, as new laboratory buildings get built, and so on, and they are staffed. So we’re seeing a lot of growth that’s hard to quantify.” Tremblay says UVA typically houses around 35 percent of its students, and he expects that ratio to continue.
“Frankly, the students, after their first year, by and large want to live off grounds. They want to live close, for the most part, but they want to live off. I think you talk to President Casteen or any of the leadership at the University—their desire is to retain a community of interest that can only be achieved if you are living adjacent to the University.”
Because Tremblay sees the supply of new housing close to UVA outpacing University growth, “it’s causing the market to shrink inward a bit, so that students who may now be living as far out as Fontaine and Fry’s Spring, they have an opportunity to come back into brand new projects like Jefferson Commons that are a block away from Cabell Hall.”
Obstacles he’ll face: More national players, like the company building the 213-unit GrandMarc Apartments on 15th Street, looking to reap the rewards of student housing; Concerns about historic buildings from the BAR and Planning Commission in the Rugby-Venable neighborhoods; Continued competition for students from complexes in the county, like College Park, Eagle’s Landing and the new Woodlands.
People would be surprised to know: He’s a huge Motown fan. “My kids laugh at me when I say this, but all music ended with Motown.”
The Lightning Rod Cheri Lewis
Job: City Planning Commissioner
Arena: City
A local development player since: 2000
Got into it through: applying, unsuccessfully, to join the Board of Architectural Review—she didn’t meet its very specific requirements. An enterprising real estate attorney who had founded, expanded and sold her own company, The Closing Company, Lewis was then encouraged to apply to the Planning Commission by David Toscano and Blake Caravati. “I was flattered, because I was really the first and only Republican that’s been appointed to the City Planning Commission in a very long time.” Now the most senior member of the commission, Lewis chaired the board last year.
Most recent accomplishment: Passing the 2003 zoning ordinance that has allowed for unprecedented density in the city. “It took Charlottesville from a town-style planning to really a more urban-style planning,” Lewis says. “It basically asked people to use the land more economically. Getting that whole thing decided upon and rolling forward was a big deal.”
Current big project: Though she’s engaged in all the Planning Commission’s doings, Lewis is known for being a heavy hitter on affordable housing. On September 28, Lewis supported the launch of the Thomas Jefferson Work Force Housing Fund, which gives non-interest, non-repayable loans to first-time homebuyers. As a planning commissioner, Lewis is pushing for an affordable housing ordinance that would give bonus densities to developers for making sure that some housing is “affordable.” “If we aren’t careful about affordability,” says Lewis, “we will be a very homogenous city and I don’t think anybody really wants that.”
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “I hope Keith Woodard moves on his plans for the Wachovia buildings on the Downtown Mall. I’m really hoping that that development comes forward in 2007 and we get that moving and we get to see that really central part of the Mall reinvigorated.
“West Main, Preston Avenue and East High Street—I’d love to see all three of those corridors begin to get some attention and be revitalized with some interesting mixed uses that will spark some businesses in those neighborhoods and create some pedestrian traffic on those streets, and begin to give them an identity so that they are destinations, but that they also serve the adjoining neighborhoods.”
But as productive as the higher-density zoning has been in turning Charlottesville into the metropolis of Central Virginia, Lewis says it may be time to rein in some of the urban development. The 2003 zoning ordinance “gave so much ability to develop by-right that we aren’t able to control some things. There’s just some mighty dense, mighty big, mighty grand things that can be done by-right,” says Lewis.
Obstacles she’ll face: Developers who meet the letter of the law but not the spirit; Legal limitations that might keep the City from having a robust affordable housing policy; Lawsuits from developers who don’t like commission decisions (one is already in the works concerning a Fifeville project, accusing the Planning Commission, and Lewis in particular, of acting “arbitrarily and capriciously”).
People would be surprised to know: Planning Commission meetings run pretty late. Lewis says the commissioners can go into “pajama party mode.” They’ve been known to pass around cookies and chocolates to perk themselves up for the long meetings. Not that they don’t take the issues seriously, but Lewis says, “As the hour gets longer, we get pretty silly.”
The Robin hood Overton McGehee
Job: Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville
A local development player since: 2005
Got into it through: having more available volunteer labor than available land. In 2005, Habitat purchased the Sunrise Trailer Park in Belmont for redevelopment. Though Habitat has been around Charlottesville since 1996, this was the first major step into the market. “Sometimes people wonder why Habitat is in the development business,” says McGehee, “and it’s really very simple: It’s the only way that we can make a dent in the affordable housing crisis in our community. Five years ago, we could buy lots in Fifeville for $15,000 apiece. Now those lots are worth $80,000 to $90,000. So if we don’t develop land, we’ll be stuck building five or six houses a year—or less.” Habitat, a nonprofit Christian group, builds houses for those earning 25 to 60 percent of area median income—roughly $15,000 to $40,000 annually in this area.
Most recent accomplishment: Built 14 houses in 2006, up from six the previous year. In 2005, Habitat combined with the Community Design Center for a design competition to create a mixed-income community at Sunrise that allows the current 21 families to continue living there.
Current big project: Starting a new “sister” nonprofit in order to sell units and maintain rentals in projects like Sunrise to families outside the normal income range Habitat works with. “We want to keep Habitat really focused,” says McGehee.
Habitat is also raising money to purchase the 100-acre Southwood mobile home park, which houses 371 trailers next to the site for Biscuit Run. Habitat has similar plans for Southwood as they do for Sunrise, though on a grander scale.
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “One year is not very interesting,” says McGehee. He prefers to look at 20 years, over which time he sees a steady influx of retirees from the Northeast and elsewhere, driving up housing prices. With the exception of Philadelphia, ”you can sell a house for the median price in a northeastern metropolitan area and buy a median priced house in Charlottesville and put more than $100,000 in your pocket,” McGehee says. “I think that people are going to continue to flock here, in increasing numbers, until we have a serious traffic problem or until our prices approach Northern Virginia prices, at which point the people will look farther south.
“It used to be that a carpenter married to a store clerk could afford to buy a home in our community, and that’s just not true any more.”
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Developers willing to pay more for land Habitat wants; Newcomers willing to pay $400,000 for a home; Grumbles from neighbors who don’t want higher density, mixed-income housing nearby.
People would be surprised to know: “More than 6,000 people have volunteered for us so far.”
The Mediator Kevin Lynch
Job: City Councilor, serving on several transportation committees
Arena: City and County transportation
A local development player since: 2000, when elected to City Council
Got into it through: active involvement during the ’90s in the neighborhood associations, ascending to become president of the Federation of Neighborhoods.
Most recent accomplishment: Creating a compromise between the City and County on the Meadowcreek Parkway, that road 30 years (and counting) in the making. An early parkway foe, Lynch had a few conditions before he’d support the parkway—that it be a two-lane road, that the City be compensated with replacement parkland and that an interchange at 250-McIntire be designed “that didn’t turn 250 into a bottleneck.” Back in 1997 or 1998, the chances of those goals happening were slim, says Lynch, but “now I think there’s a very good chance that we might get all of those things.”
Current big projects: City Council is working with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to secure replacement parkland for the land that will be lost when the Meadowcreek Parkway is built. City Council has entered the design phase for Hillsdale Drive to create a connector that runs from Hydraulic Road to Rio Road. The City and the County are working to turn the Charlottesville Transit Service (CTS) into a regional transit authority.
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: “VDOT has projected ever since 1985 that the [Route] 250 Bypass is going to gridlock by 2015,” Lynch says, regardless of whether the MCP is built. “There are about 2,000-2,500 new units of housing in the county that are waiting for the Meadowcreek Parkway before they can be built. That includes Belvedere Farms, parts of Dunlora that haven’t been built out, the old sewage treatment plant.… So there are a lot of developers there that are waiting for new roadway capacity.” Lynch also anticipates they’ll have a good design for the 250-McIntire interchange by the end of the year.
Lynch thinks another connector should start becoming more concrete in 2007. “By the end of 2007, I would expect we will have an agreed-upon alignment for an eastern connector connecting [Route] 29 to Pantops,” Lynch says. City Council just hired an engineer for an alignment study—Lynch predicts Pen Park Road might be a good alignment for an eastern connector that would cost $15 million to $20 million.
Likely obstacles he’ll face: A reluctant County government; Continued indecision on transportation funding from Richmond lawmakers; Opposition to the Meadowcreek Parkway (and an eastern connector) from many of the citizens who elected Lynch in the first place.
People would be surprised to know: Lynch may be the go-to guy for transportation issues, but his first loves are issues like education and employment. “Transportation is something I’ve gravitated to because I had the background. It’s probably not my passion, but I seem to be the one on Council who’s willing to do it.”
The Activist Peter Kleeman
Job: Generally active citizen; Independent transportation and environmental consultant
Arena: City and county
A local development player since: 1997
Got into it through: joining a citizen’s group agitating against the then controversial Western Bypass. “I felt that information needed to be provided to those decision makers,” Kleeman says, “and I was a good candidate to do it.” He had left a job in VDOT’s environmental division: “I realized they were truly the evil empire.”
Throughout endless debates over the Meadowcreek Parkway and other local sore points, Kleeman has established himself not only as a regular commentator at public meetings (he spends up to 30 hours a month attending and preparing for meetings), but one with a professional background that makes him hard to write off. His frequent talking points are air quality and other environmental issues that big road projects stir up, but, he says, true democratic representation is ultimately his biggest concern: “I don’t consider myself a NIMBY. Almost none of these projects affect me directly. It’s the process that affects me.”
Most recent accomplishment: Getting citizen input on the agenda for a recent joint City-County regional transit workshop. These days, Kleeman says, he’s become more focused on the issue of public involvement itself. Local bodies should build in more structured opportunity for citizens to voice their concerns and have them actually be heard. And this applies, he says, even to citizens lacking the kind of expertise he himself brings to the table: “The citizen can say ‘What is this even about? Can you say that one more time?’ They could exploit this possibility of being seen as awkward intervener.”
Current big project: Getting local government to think more regionally about issues like transportation and affordable housing, rather than narrowly looking at just Charlottesville or Albemarle. This could mean, for example, the City’s investment of $250,000 to study a proposed Eastern Connector. For the City to spend money on a road completely outside its boundaries is, he says, “a monumental breakthrough.”
DEVELOPMENT FORECAST 2007: Kleeman expects to keep, as he puts it, “pushing with one finger” to move localities toward more regional thinking.
“I think that what’s going to happen is that Charlottesville and Albemarle will seriously start working together on lots of our shared problems. It’s getting to the point now where both jurisdictions are realizing that they need to work together to be able to meet our regions needs and goals, whether it’s in housing, transportation, economic development—where it is just essential to bridge the gap between jurisdictions. So I’m optimistic that more joint work will start leading to better, more efficient, hopefully less expensive solutions to our regions problems.”
Likely obstacles he’ll face: Infighting between City and County governments that could stall significant progress on a new transit authority; Indifference from councilors or supervisors who begin to discount what Kleeman has to offer; Interest groups you don’t see at public meetings—like the trucking industry.
People would be surprised to know: He’s not a single-minded tree-hugger. “I’m not pushing a solution, I’m pushing the idea that we need to consider all the alternatives. If we have all the alternatives in front of us and our community wants something I’m opposed to, that’s O.K.”
