The final site plan for a 300-unit residential development off Sunset Avenue, just south of I-64 on the western side of Charlottesville, has been approved by the County Planning Commission at their November 7 meeting. Developed by Athens, Georgia based Dovetail Companies, the “Woodlands” will bring more student housing to the outskirts of Charlottesville, joining Eagles Landing, Jefferson Ridge and College Park.
Woodlands’ preliminary site plan came before the Planning Commission in January because residents of the neighboring Sherwood Manor subdivision, downhill from the site, were concerned about drainage, sighting and lighting issues. But Woodlands’ engineers appear to have answered those concerns as Gary Leavel, president of the Sherwood Manor Homeowner’s Association, now endorses the project.
“We have found a few things that convinced us that the stormwater management issue would work itself out,” Leavel said at the meeting.
Not everyone’s concerns have been addressed. “It’s just more frustration for us,” says John Santoski, president of the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association. “One of the issues has been that these developments are taking place in the county but yet all that traffic comes through the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood.” He says his group plans to meet with the Jefferson Park Avenue Neighborhood and City officials to discuss the possibility of closing Old Lynchburg Road until some of the connector roads are built in the county.
Valerie Long, the local attorney representing the Woodlands development, says that they hope to break ground in three weeks and finish in time to be available to students next August. Dovetail Development has other “Woodlands” in the college towns where University of Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Texas A&M, Clemson University and University of Tennessee are located.
“The units are very high-end, they have a wonderful amenities package,” says Long. “They have a clubhouse in every one of their communities with a very nice endless pool, volleyball courts, basketball courts, tanning beds, saunas—they have even an office center.”
Long says they don’t plan to rent the units. “[The developers] tell me their most typical investors are the parents of students,” says Long. “They also have a lot of alumni who buy the units for coming back to football games, coming back to reunion weekends, just coming back to Charlottesville.”