Author: Sean Tubbs

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Southern Development seeks permission to build affordable units for 240 Stribling—at a different location

Southern Development seeks a rezoning to allow for eight affordable units slated for a project on Stribling Avenue to be built at the company’s Flint Hill community instead. Photo by Sean Tubbs.

When Southern Development Homes won a rezoning in Charlottesville to allow for the construction of 170 dwelling units on Stribling Avenue, the idea was that all of the required affordable units would be built on the 11-acre site in Fry’s Spring. 

As part of the rezoning in late April 2022, Southern Development agreed to designate 15 percent of the units as affordable to households with gross earnings of less than 60 percent of area median income (AMI). Under the city’s definitions, that’s classified as “low- and moderate-income.” 

A new request from the developer seeks to add the definition of “very low-income household,” reserved for families who earn between 30 percent and 50 percent of AMI. But the amendment also requests permission to build at most eight of those units elsewhere so that they are available to potential residents sooner. 

“Assuming the final site plan approval proceeds in a timely manner, construction of new homes [at 240 Stribling] is still likely to be no less than two years in the future, and possibly more,” reads the narrative for the request. 

Southern Development also points out that construction is underway at its Flint Hill project, which is also in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. Tree-clearing has begun for the 60-unit community built between Moseley and Longwood drives. 

Under the Flint Hill rezoning, granted in April 2020, eight affordable units are required to be built and the new request transfers the obligation to build—at most—eight of 240 Stribling’s 26 units to the Flint Hill project. That would create up to 16 units there, with at least two of them reserved for the “very low-income” category. 

Southern Development is working with Habitat for Humanity to build those units. 

“We’ve had some amazing recent partnerships with them at Burnet Commons and Southwood,” says Charlie Armstrong, vice president at Southern Development. “They will definitely be building eight Habitat units at Flint Hill and we want them to build 16.”

Meanwhile, the city continues to work on the design for infrastructure to support the Stribling project. The council’s original vote to rezone was conditional upon the city entering into a public-private partnership with Southern Development to upgrade Stribling Avenue with sidewalks. The road currently lacks walkways and drainage. The city has created drawings and a final version is expected to be ready for public review in July. 

This will be the first rezoning under the city’s new Development Code. Southern Development is not asking for any other changes to the rezoning beyond the affordability provisions.

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University credit union moving ahead with plans for new headquarters on Fifth Street Extended

A rendering of the future UVA Credit Union headquarters to be located at 1201 Fifth St. SW just over the line in Albemarle County. Image via Glave & Holmes Architecture.

One of the area’s oldest financial institutions is preparing for the future with plans to move its headquarters from Albemarle’s central urban area to one emerging in the south. 

In 2026, the UVA Community Credit Union will move from 3300 Berkmar Dr. to a large six-acre tract at 1201 Fifth St. SW at Interstate 64’s Exit 120.

“To ensure handicap accessibility, we’ll be demolishing the existing building and constructing a modern Jeffersonian-style structure, with occupancy targeted for summer 2026,” reads the 2023 annual report for the Credit Union. 

Founded in 1954 with service restricted to employees of the UVA hospital, the Credit Union has steadily expanded. In 2021, a charter update spread its potential membership to Lynchburg in the south and to Harrisonburg in the north. The expansion paid off: The Credit Union welcomed more than 80,000 new customers in 2023. 

The Credit Union bought the six-acre property in October 2021 for $8.9 million from the Christian Aid Mission, which has since moved its headquarters to 1807 Seminole Trail. The existing building was constructed in 1986 to be the headquarters of Virginia Power’s western division. Christian Aid bought the property in September 1997 for $3.6 million. 

The Credit Union recently sold the building that contains their branch on Arlington Boulevard as well as two other properties for $10.5 million. The purchaser is the University of Virginia Foundation, which tends to continue to rent to existing businesses until it’s time for UVA to use the property. None of their other branches are currently listed for sale. 

The northern portion of the property abuts Moores Creek and serves as part of the route for the Rivanna Trail. 

The Credit Union plans to demolish the existing building and construct a new two-story structure with almost the same footprint as the present one with 41,086 commercial square feet. The Albemarle Architectural Review Board will take a look at the plans in the near future. 

This section of Albemarle County has been steadily growing with the opening of 5th Street Station in late 2016 after being rezoned for commercial development in March 2008. Since then, traffic volumes have increased and there are several transportation projects in the works. One of them could be the conversion of Exit 120 into a diverging diamond. Albemarle Supervisors endorsed that plan last week. 

While there are no residential units associated with this project, Albemarle classifies this area as Neighborhood 5, one of Albemarle’s designated growth areas. There are 1,453 dwelling units approved but not built as of April 1. Most of those units are in the Southwood Mobile Home about a mile to the south down Fifth Street Extended. 

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Not-so-tiny change

So far, Louisa has received one application for a tiny house, a 10'x32' Tiny Timbers house that will be built on the site of the applicant company. Photo by Tiny Timbers.

A recent change to rules about what can be constructed has cleared an obstacle for those who wish to live in a very small living space. At least in Louisa. 

“State building code now identifies tiny homes and has a regulation,” says Toni Williams, a member of the Louisa Board of Supervisors. “It’s just a house. It’s just a small house.” 

Louisa and many other localities across Virginia have prohibited tiny houses mostly on the basis that Virginia’s building code did not have any official provision for them. The code is updated every three years, and the new version of the code that went into effect in January now officially defines these as structures less than 400 square feet. 

Earlier this month, the Louisa Board of Supervisors removed a definition of “tiny house” from the definitions in land-use regulations. That means they can now be built in any zoning district where single-family houses are allowed. 

“Tiny homes must be placed on permanent foundations as part of the building code, so if you have a tiny home and it is on wheels then they would call that maybe like a camper,” Williams says.  

Williams said Louisa previously was wary of allowing the structures out of concerns about how many could be parked on a site if they’re on wheels. 

The building code has the same minimum construction standards but allows for deviations. A normal house must have a minimum ceiling height of seven feet, but a tiny house can be 6’8″. Bathroom ceilings can be as low as 6’4″. The code now allows for a loft with a minimum of three-foot height to be used as habitable space. 

Placement of such structures would still be regulated by minimum lot sizes. 

Since the Planning Commission heard the item in May, Louisa has received one application for such a structure, a 10’x32′ Tiny Timbers house that will be built on the site of the applicant company. That will now be handled internally and requires no approval by elected officials. 

Petersburg-based Tiny Timbers prices its units between $78,500 and $87,500. Tiny homes on foundations will take longer to build than those on wheels, but those would be regulated as a recreational vehicle. 

Charlottesville’s building code official says the city has also already seen construction of tiny homes.

“The most common [ones] that we see here in the city are when they are stick-built on site like a typical house or dwelling,” says Chuck Miller. If they’re manufactured elsewhere, they have to comply with Virginia’s Manufactured Home Safety Regulations. 

An official with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development says it is up to each locality to determine how to proceed. 

“Enforcement of building codes is done at the local municipal level and the state primarily serves as a training arm as well as conducting the periodic updates of the building codes based on national codes and standards,” says Thomas King, a code and regulations specialist.

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Change order

The Building and Grounds Committee will discuss the new Center of the Arts to be built in the Emmet-Ivy corridor (in yellow), the new home for the Fralin and Kluge-Ruhe art museums. Image by City of Charlottesville.

The University of Virginia has more influence and control over Charlottesville’s future than any other entity in the community. At this moment, UVA has more than a billion projects under construction, according to the packet for this week’s meeting of the Board of Visitors. 

The agenda of the Buildings and Grounds Committee is a good place to see what might be happening next. Rather than meeting at their usual Thursday afternoon time, the panel will convene Friday morning. This change comes because a “leadership discussion” is scheduled for the full 17-member board on Thursday and will be followed by a closed session.

Since becoming University president in August 2018, Jim Ryan has put a priority on building connections with the greater community. The President’s Council on UVA-Community Partnerships has led to several initiatives, such as a commitment to provide land for between 1,000 and 1,500 affordable units in the community. 

Another initiative in the Great and Good Strategic Plan adopted during Ryan’s tenure is to house all second-year students on campus. UVA recently announced plans to build up to 2,000 beds for this purpose on either Emmet Street or Ivy Road, with the first units planned for 2027. 

On Friday morning, the Buildings and Grounds panel will get an update on the 2024 major capital plan and will review the plans for a new North Grounds parking garage.

“This is a thousand-space structured parking deck which is going to be located at the northwest corner of Massie Road and Copeley,” says Michael Joy of the UVA Office of the Architect. “It will be adjacent to all of the competition venues and the John Paul Jones Arena.”

Joy says this will allow UVA to eliminate surface parkings for future development. Some of the apartment buildings at Copeley Hill will be demolished to make way for the parking structure. 

New projects to be added to the capital plan include the renovation of an engineering research facility on Observatory Mountain, a project called the Darden Global Innovation Nexus, and expansion of a child care center on Copeley Road. The lattermost project would see capacity grow from 115 children to a total of 285. 

Other new initiatives will have a big impact on Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood. Last year, UVA purchased the Oak Lawn estate for $3.5 million, having already purchased several properties a block to the north in 2016. Planning studies are proposed for both.

“The Grove Street planning study will consider program options for these two sites, which are likely to include UVA Health and neighborhood clinics, community uses, and parking in a mixed-use format,” reads a description in the B&G packet. 

Written material for the Oak Lawn property hints at a future child care center on the 5.2-acre parcel. 

The buildings panel will also approve the location and design guidelines for the new Center of the Arts to be built in the Emmet-Ivy corridor. This would be the new home for the Fralin and Kluge-Ruhe art museums as well as the music department. There will also be a 1,200-seat auditorium. 

“Design is in the early stages and there will be ongoing funding efforts both
with the Commonwealth and with
philanthropic donors,” says Joy, who is a non-voting member of the city planning commission. 

Also on the full Board’s agenda this week is a trip to the new football operations center, which will be named for Molly and Robert Hardie, the co-owners of Keswick Hall who made a large gift to support the Virginia Athletics Master Plan.

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Filling in 

The view looking north on 10th Street NW with a rendering of the bulk of the proposed six-story building. Image by GRIMM + PARKER.

Details are now known for the first of three UVA-initiated projects to build between 1,000 and 1,500 affordable housing units in the community. 

“This is a project being pursued by the University’s real estate foundation at the northeast corner of 10th Street and Wertland,” says Jeffrey Werner, the city’s preservation planner. “There are some opportunities here for architectural creativity.” 

UVA President Jim Ryan announced the general goal in March 2020, but work stalled during the pandemic. Three sites were selected in December 2021; they include the redevelopment of a faculty housing site on Fontaine Avenue and space at the North Fork Research Park. In all cases, developers will lease sites that will be owned by UVA’s foundation. 

The two-acre site in the center of Charlottesville is currently a parking lot and a three-story apartment building owned by the foundation. In February, UVA selected a partnership consisting of the Boston-based Preservation of Affordable Housing and the National Housing Trust. 

“Our goal is to design this in context and collaboratively with the University of Virginia with the surrounding community and [to create] something that is financeable,” says J.T. Engelhardt of NHT, an organization that co-owns Kindlewood with the Piedmont Housing Alliance. 

Under the city’s new CX-8 zoning, the developer could have gone as high as 11 stories. But on May 21, members of the Board of Architectural Review saw a six-story structure that would take up much of the two-acre site. 

“We’re assuming somewhere between 150 and 190 affordable rental units,” says Liz Chapman of Grimm + Parker, a local firm hired to actually design the building. “That … range is largely driven by wanting to work with community stakeholders to understand the types of residential units these should be.”

For instance, should they be built for individuals or for families? 

Under the initial plan, vehicles would enter the 80-space parking garage on 10th Street, the same street that retail spaces will face. 

Chapman asked BAR members to identify what architectural cues the project should take and whether there were nearby examples of adequate public infrastructure for pedestrians. 

BAR member James Zehmer pointed out that 10th Street is a very busy road and suggested the designers move the garage entrance to Wertland. 

“I think this wants to be part of West Main because of the massing and size, but we need to respect there’s a much more residential neighborhood behind it,” Zehmer says. 

Chapman said the preliminary idea is to build the structure as a concrete podium with wood construction because that’s the most feasible way to cover the costs. An internal courtyard would provide the outdoor amenity space in something referred to as a doughnut. 

Planning Commissioner Carl Schwarz says he understands the reason for the design, but he doesn’t like that it looks like a fortress. 

“It does feel like it’s walled itself off a little bit,” Schwarz says. “It makes a safe public space for the residents, but it’s not very welcoming to the neighborhood.”   

BAR member Cheri Lewis encouraged the designers to create a way for vehicles to drop people off at the new building. 

“You can’t stop on 10th Street,” Lewis said. “There’s no way. And I don’t think you can turn very easily without being backended anyway, so maybe there’s an opportunity there.”

In the near future, the redevelopment of Westhaven could mean additional affordable units. City Council has morally committed at least $15 million to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

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Back to worship 

The building at 105 Ridge St., which formerly housed the Music Resource Center, will serve as Point Church’s newest campus. Supplied photo.

A Christian church with locations in Louisa County, Pantops Mountain, and Waynesboro has purchased a key site in downtown Charlottesville for a new campus. 

Point Church paid $1.3 million for 105 Ridge St., a structure originally built in the late 19th century for the Mount Zion Baptist Church. The property had previously been listed at $1.875 million. 

“This is an amazing building, and just think of all the life changes that have happened here,” said executive director Chip Measells in a video on the church’s website. “You can’t get any more [central] than where we are.” 

After the Mount Zion congregation moved to a new location on Lankford Avenue in 2003, the building became the home of the Music Resource Center in 2004. Previously, the center offered educational opportunities to teens in a practice space above Trax, a famed nightclub that was demolished soon after the University of Virginia purchased it for hospital expansion.  

Point Church was founded in 2009 and is listed as being a Southern Baptist congregation. Their website states they expect to have the old church ready for worship services in April 2025. The purchase was a strategic one. 

“We want to be at the center of everything that’s happening around our communities that are in poverty, that are struggling with financial hardships, and to do that we need to map the assets and collaborate and coordinate with all the other great work that’s being done,” Measells said. 

One nearby opportunity for collaboration is the Salvation Army at 207 Ridge St. City Council recently granted permission for an expansion project that will allow an increase from 55 shelter beds to 114 beds. That includes seven two-bedroom suites for transitional housing, allowing families to stay together. 

Measells said Point Church has an entrepreneurship academy that lasts 10 weeks and is followed up with Gospel-led mentorship. 

“We are praying that God is going to make an extraordinary impact through this Gospel-centered path out of poverty,” said Pastor Gabe Turner in the video. “We are praying that the poverty level will decrease.”

The Point Church will continue to lease the basement space to the Music Resource Center. They also have a map indicating several satellite locations for parishioners to park. The few spaces close to the church are reserved for drivers with handicap tags. 

Next door, Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer is marketing the former Greyhound bus station as a “rare development opportunity” that could take advantage of the new Commercial Mixed Use Corridor zoning. An encampment of unhoused individuals is currently living at the site. 

Elsewhere in Charlottesville, plans to develop a portion of the Hinton Avenue Methodist Church in Belmont with affordable apartments fell through when the Church of the Good Shepherd paid $1.5 million for the property. That purchase allowed the congregation to move out of the space they were renting at 105 Ridge St. from the Music Resource Center.

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Neighborhood remodel?

The single-story office structure within the yellow boundaries will be redeveloped as a four-story mixed-use building with up to 15 apartments. Line and Grade via Albemarle GIS.

Twenty-three years ago this week, Albemarle Supervisors officially adopted a policy called the Neighborhood Model to encourage construction of a more urban fabric in the county’s designated growth areas.   

“We were proud of the tremendous efforts put into developing the Neighborhood Model by a committee of local residents and staff,” says Sally Thomas, who represented the Samuel Miller District at the time. “It was ‘smart growth’ before that was a common moniker.” 

Since that time, developers have gotten approval from the Board of Supervisors by demonstrating how their projects satisfy twelve principles intended to avoid suburban sprawl by using land more efficiently. Albemarle also created master plans for each area to signal to property owners what the local government would like to see happen. 

Dr. Jay Knight operates his dental practice on a one-acre parcel on Woodbrook Drive near the intersection with Berkmar Drive in a building constructed in 1996. 

“Our building pretty much needs to be updated at this point,” Knight says. “I have been thinking for some time about redesigning the office and the building and thought it would be a great idea to also be able to have some residential components with the property.”

According to the plans drawn up by the firm Line and Grade, the one-story building would be demolished to make way for a four-story structure with a footprint of 6,698 square feet. 

“Currently the plan is for ground-level dental office space with three stories residential above, at up to 15 units,” reads the narrative for the application written by Line and Grade. 

Knight is a native of the area who says he appreciates Albemarle’s work to limit development into the rural area to attain what he described as a “great harmony.” This property is designated in the Places29 Master Plan as “urban density residential.” 

However, comprehensive plans are advisory and landowners must comply with zoning. The current classification for this property is commercial (C-1) so a special use permit is required for residential use. Two special exceptions to building placement rules are also requested to allow the site to be reused. 

The property is adjacent to Agnor-Hurt Elementary School, and plans show an easement for a future pathway to the school should the county decide to build one. Knight said that came at the suggestion of planners in Albemarle’s Community Development during a preliminary meeting before the application was filed. 

Albemarle has amended its Comprehensive Plan several times since 2001, including the addition of the Housing Albemarle plan. This plan has a clear goal for developers: More places to live are required for the county to support anticipated population growth. The Places29 Master Plan, adopted in 2007, called for an extension of Berkmar Drive north, and VDOT has plans to connect that roadway to Airport Road where it joins the UVA Discovery Park. 

Another principle in the neighborhood model is to provide residential density in places where there are sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and public transit. People who live in the space would have access to at least one Charlottesville Area Transit route. Knight said residents could walk to the Rio Hill Shopping Center for groceries and could easily make their way to jobs. 

“I think a concept like what we’re talking about would really fit in,” Knight says. 

The permit and the special exceptions will need to go through the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Knight hopes to be able to move to construction between two and five years. 

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Explosive growth

For years, Crozet celebrated July 4 with fireworks at Claudius Crozet Park, but new homes built in the debris field means a new location is necessary. Photo by Jim Duncan.

Unlike Scottsville, Crozet is not a town, and decisions about land use are up to the six-member Board of Supervisors. The unincorporated community is in Albemarle’s White Hall District, and last year, incumbent Supervisor Ann Mallek narrowly defeated challenger Brad Rykal.  

Rykal’s campaign argued Albemarle has focused too much development into Crozet without providing the necessary infrastructure. Even after losing by just 500 votes, Rykal and his campaign formed the group Crozet United and have continued to oppose new homes, such as the 122-unit Montclair development on Route 240. 

This week, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee will take up a special use permit that is only indirectly related to residential growth. King Family Vineyards wants permission to hold the annual Independence Day celebration this year and into the future. 

“The fireworks celebration has previously been held at Claudius Crozet Park,” reads the application for the permit. “However, after recent housing development encroaching on the park, fireworks can no longer be launched without endangering inhabited dwellings nearby.”

The 22.81 acre Claudius Crozet Park is privately owned by a nonprofit organization right in the middle of one of Albemarle’s designated growth areas. However, Albemarle’s fire marshal will no longer permit displays of fireworks due to the presence of new homes. 

As of April 1, Albemarle’s Community Development Department lists 1,482 approved residential units in Crozet that have not yet been built, though that figure largely refers to 1,078 units still allowed at Old Trail Village, which is some distance away from the park. 

The U.S. Census Bureau designates Crozet as a place, and lists the population as having grown from 5,565 in 2010 to 9,224 in 2020. The application for the special use permit suggests that a permanent home for Crozet’s Independence Day celebration will help create the future.

“It is a wonderful event that brings people together, both young and old alike,” reads the narrative. “It is an opportunity for people that have lived in Crozet for their entire lives and those who may have just moved to the area to share a common space and make memories together.”

The Crozet Community Advisory Committee meets at 7pm Wednesday in the Crozet Library. 

Jim Duncan is a member of the CAC and realtor who has written about Crozet issues for years. He said that while he is glad King Family Vineyards wants to be the new venue for Independence Day celebrations, he laments the change of venue from Claudius Crozet Park. 

“That was such an important part of life in Crozet for decades,” Duncan said. “So many were able to walk to the fireworks and see them from their homes and be part of the community in that way.” 

Officials with Crozet United declined to provide comment for this story. 

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House down

When the City of Charlottesville served a stop-work order at 521 Park Plaza, it discovered that this one-and-a-half-story home had already been demolished. Supplied photo.

The City of Charlottesville issued a stop-work order on Friday, April 26, at 521 Park Plaza in the North Downtown neighborhood. When it served the document, the city discovered the three-bedroom house had been demolished. 

At some point late last week, a yellow excavator smashed the one-and-a-half-story structure into pieces. City records listed the home, built in 1979, in excellent condition and without a basement. 

The demolition took place despite the new owners having an approved building permit to proceed with a remodeling. 

Carrie and Benjamin Yorker bought the property last August for $705,000. The house had been assessed in 2023 at $459,800, and that climbed to $677,700 this January. The home first sold in April 1980 for $59,000. 

Benjamin Yorker is a development partner with the Charlotte-based firm Northwood Ravin, and focuses on markets in the southern United States. He has two degrees from the University of Virginia, including a master of business administration from the Darden School of Business. 

The city issued a building permit for “interior renovations” on March 19 at what documents describe as Yorker Cottage. Sage Homes LLC is named as the contractor, and “remodel” was listed as the description of the work, with an estimated cost of $550,000. The plans clearly show the structure was to be remodeled, and there is no hint that demolition was pending. 

The property is within the Residential-A zoning district, which means three new units can be built on the 0.11 acre lot under the new zoning. 

City code defines demolition “as the razing of any structure above the existing grade, or the demolition of any structure below the existing grade.”  

Neighborhood Development Services requires a permit for partial or full residential demolition, but it is unclear from the code what the penalty is if someone does not submit one. The cost to apply for a permit ranges from $75 to $1,500, depending on the permit. 

The home at 521 Park Plaza is not within the jurisdiction of an architectural design control district, so permission from the Board of Architectural Review was not required. Penalties are much more severe for removing such a structure without the city’s consent. 

The city has issued demolition permits this year for 710 Lexington Ave. and 600 Altavista Ave. Requests to take down 1105 Grove St. in Fifeville and 612 Harris Rd. in Willoughby are still pending, while another, 1003 Carlton Ave., is listed as “closed,” meaning the permit was rejected. (The demolition of this structure would allow Riverbend Development to construct a 130-unit condominium complex.) 

“The demolition permit informs utilities and other service providers that all services must be disconnected,” says Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement. “The permit is not issued until those groups sign off that it is complete.” 

Schneider also says the permit ensures that any hazardous materials, such as asbestos or lead paint, will be mitigated in the removal process. Coordination with erosion and sediment control takes place at this stage.

Anyone who takes down a building outside a historic district without permission must pay the $150 stop-work fee (this is charged per day that work continues without permit), pay double the demolition fee, and resolve any other site issues before new applications can be processed. 

At press time, the Yorkers had not responded to a request for comment.  

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Hall pass

The 20th-century building that currently houses the UVA Alumni Association will likely be replaced with a new Alumni Hall. Centerbrook Architects and Planners.

On Tuesday, April 30, representatives from the University of Virginia Alumni Association will publicly present a site plan for “a new Alumni Hall” at the corner of Emmet Street and Lewis Mountain Road. 

The Alumni Association is a separate entity from the university, and pays property taxes to the City of Charlottesville. Unlike UVA, it also must comply with the city’s land-use regulations, which means paying $6,565 in fees for a recent application. 

A preliminary site plan was filed on August 3, 2023, under the former zoning, and this is one of several projects that is still being considered under the old rules that include site plan conferences. (That conference will be held in the Neighborhood Development Services conference room in City Hall on Tuesday, August 30, 2024, at 9am.) 

Under the city’s new Development Code, the zoning for the 3.15 acre property is Residential-A, meaning redevelopment would be difficult. However, the replacement building is allowed due to an existing special use permit for a private club that was first approved in 1980 and last updated in 2016.

“The applicants may redevelop their property for the new building, so long as they comply with all conditions of the existing special use permit,” says Dannan O’Connell, a city planner coordinating the review. 

O’Connell says the site plan is preliminary and could change depending on feedback. 

The UVA Alumni Association has been in the current building since 1936, when it moved in to what was then Kappa Phi House. For many years, the city used Alumni Hall for a voting precinct, but a new electoral map adopted last year ended that practice. The association uses the building for hundreds of events throughout the year, including home football game parties, and the facility is often rented for private events. 

The Alumni Association has hired Centerbrook Architects and Planners to take the project through the planning process. The Connecticut-based firm recently designed the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center at Duke University. 

According to the preliminary site plan, the existing two-story building will be completely removed, but some of the signature trees on the property will be kept. The new building would be a maximum of 35-feet tall, with a max footprint of 29,075 square feet. 

If the project proceeds, it will be part of an era of transformation along Emmet Street. Just to the south, construction is nearing completion on the four-story Contemplative Commons, including a new pedestrian bridge to Newcomb Hall. Even further to the south, a private project called Verve Charlottesville has been approved by the city and will see several dozen residential units at Woodrow Apartments be replaced with an apartment with 446 new units. 

The project will not include an adjacent property on Lewis Mountain Road that’s owned by the University of Virginia Foundation, upon which two single-family homes currently stand. 

The leader of the Alumni Association said the current building does not meet the needs of the organization.

“Our vision is to build a wholly new facility on the same parcel of land that can serve the needs of our ever-evolving alumni, UVA, and Charlottesville community,” said Lily West, the associaiton’s president & CEO “We are calling it “A Home for Every Hoo.”

West said there’s a lot of work to be done to make the project a reality.