After several years of discussion, the Charlottesville Planning Commission has recommended a new zoning code that will increase the amount of buildable space within city limits.
The appointed body has recommended the restoration of an idea to limit development in areas of the city identified as more prone to displacement of Black and other minority residents. That is in addition to a last-minute change to restrict development on Preston Avenue unless there is community input.
In the new Residential Core Neighborhood A district, property owners could only build one unit on a lot, but they could add two more units if the existing structure is not torn down. As many as six units could be built if all the additional units were guaranteed as affordable.
The total building footprint allowed on a property in these zones would be restricted to 2,500 square feet for one unit, but 3,000 if there were two units.
“The idea is to prevent McMansions,” said Commissioner Philip d’Oronzio before the Planning Commission’s October 18 vote. d’Oronzio is a member of the Housing Advisory Committee who argued that the restrictions are necessary. The executive director of Piedmont Housing Alliance briefed Council on the reasons why earlier this month.
“The anti-displacement zones overlay … grew out of this assessment and attempt to redistribute development pressure by differentiating maximum densities,” said Sunshine Mathon, PHA executive director. “More density in historically exclusionary neighborhoods, less density in anti-displacement zones.”
Several properties in this new area with single-family homes have traded at high sales prices since being identified in the Comprehensive Plan as “Sensitive Communities” more than two years ago. One is 905 Page Street, which sold for $600,000 on October 6. That’s a lot higher than the $30,000 that Loft Realty and Investments paid for the lot in September 2017.
Vice Chair and Commissioner Carl Schwarz, a resident of the 10th and Page neighborhood, had some concern about the overlay.
“People who have lived in the neighborhood forever, born in the ‘50s, lived their entire lives,” Schwarz said. “Are we cutting out that personal wealth by doing this?”
d’Oronzio claimed the restrictions had the support of the neighborhood.
“We seem to have a pretty loud and clear signal that neighborhood preservation and housing preservation without developer invasion is heavily weighted against value,” d’Oronzio said.
d’Oronzio said there would still be value even with fewer development rights. One example is the $510,000 sales price on July 28 for 326 10 ½ Street NW, a property with two structures. The previous owners had purchased that property in January 2017 for $90,000.
Council’s public hearing on the Development Code has not yet been scheduled
At the same time, other planks of the Cville Plans Together initiative are also being implemented, such as the spending of at least $10 million per year on affordable units.
This week, the governing body of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority agreed to purchase 1642 Meridian Street in the Belmont neighborhood for $255,000 in funds to be later approved by City Council. At the same meeting, they agreed to refinancing of a $5 million loan used to help cover the purchase of 74 units scattered across the city. Council paid the other $5 million for that project.