It has been more than three years since the University of Virginia launched an initiative to help build between a thousand and 1,500 affordable housing units. Three sites have been selected, and the next step is to announce the nonprofit developers that will design and build new homes for households below certain income levels.
“We are really close but we’re not quite at the finish line yet,” says Colette Sheehy, UVA’s senior vice president for operations and state government relations.
The project is an outcome of President Jim Ryan’s Council on UVA-Community Partnerships, and will first see development on two sites owned by either UVA or its real estate foundation. These are at 10th and Wertland streets in the heart of Charlottesville, and the Piedmont housing site on Fontaine Avenue.
The North Fork Discovery Park has been identified as the third site, but planning there will not begin until after the UVA Foundation goes through the rezoning process in Albemarle County. That request is on hold.
The Piedmont Housing Alliance has been invited to submit proposals to develop each site. The nonprofits Community Housing Partners and Enterprise Community Partners are also in the running for Piedmont, and AHC Inc. and Preservation of Affordable Housing are hopeful to be the developers of Wertland and 10th.
UVA will only contribute land to the project, leaving financing to the selected developer.
“The partnership terms and the agreements will hold the developer accountable for creating high-quality developments that will be affordable and well maintained,” reads the initiative’s website.
Meanwhile, the university is also hoping to build more residences for second-year students, and has set aside $7 million for planning and design.
Where will the new student housing go? Exact locations haven’t been determined, but the draft of UVA’s next master plan designates six “residential mixed-use redevelopment zones,” including Ivy Gardens, Midmont, and south of Scott Stadium.
Another of these zones is south of the Buckingham Branch railroad that divides Charlottesville. UVA paid $8.73 million in August 2016 for 2.63 acres of land at the intersection of Grove Street and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard.
A matrix in the draft Grounds Framework Plan states that housing is the primary use at that location. Anything built there would not be subject to Charlottesville’s zoning code.
Stacey Hall on West Main is adjacent to the 10th and Wertland site, but is not included in the affordable housing initiative. The draft framework plan designates this as an Academic Mixed-Use Redevelopment zone, with housing listed as a potential primary use.