Category: Real Estate

A driving force of the Cville Plans Together initiative has been to make sure the city changes its land-use policies to redress the past.   

“Single-family zoning has historically been a tool to create and reinforce racial segregation in Charlottesville,” reads the Affordable Housing Plan adopted by City Council in March 2021. 

The plan called for new zoning to allow “soft density” in single-family neighborhoods, “while limiting displacement of low-income communities.” The plan recommended identifying specific neighborhoods. 

Eight months later, City Council adopted a Comprehensive Plan that includes a Future Land Use Map that called for the end of single-family housing in every neighborhood by allowing at least three dwelling units on all lots. This map also used census data to designate areas where there are more residents prone to displacement due to low incomes, as well as higher concentrations of Black households. 

The plan called for new zoning tools and other policies for these “sensitive communities” to keep people in place and to support wealth building. The plan was clear that these areas were to be further outlined and that each might feature steps unique to that community. 

Policy tools might have had funds to help pay for rehabilitation of owner-occupied homes. Potential zoning tools considered included allowing smaller lots and commercial uses, as well as more subdivisions and reduced parking minimums. 

The Comprehensive Plan said the zoning rewrite should mitigate “the potential for displacement.”  The Future Land Use Map also proposed restricting buildings in these areas to one unit per lot rather than the three allowed in all other neighborhoods. 

Two neighborhood associations say the final draft of the development code didn’t meet that bar.

“All protection against gentrification and displacement has been surreptitiously removed in ways that were intended to hide its removal,” reads the letter from the Meadowbrook Hills/Rugby Neighborhood Association and Lewis Mountain neighborhood associations. “It’s clear that this was never about protecting those citizens in Charlottesville who are in greatest need for protection from development.”

As the zoning rewrite continued, the city did publish a document this spring that addressed these sensitive communities. 

“We are working to determine the best path forward for supporting mitigation of displacement in the Sensitive Community Areas through the Zoning Ordinance in the context of the current draft, including affordability measures,” reads a portion of the four-page document, which goes on to say that more information about sensitive communities would be shared.

“We intend to share any updates to the strategies related to Sensitive Community Areas with the refined draft,” the document continues. Yet the phrase “sensitive communities” doesn’t appear in the final draft of the development code. 

“After review, as well as focus groups with those who live and own in those areas, it was decided that land-use regulations were not an effective tool to address the needs expressed by the communities,” says Missy Creasy, the city’s deputy director of Neighborhood Development Services.

The city has followed through with other recommendations in the Affordable Housing Plan, such as putting at least $10 million toward affordable housing projects. This has included funding to Piedmont Housing Alliance for projects such as Friendship Court (recently renamed Kindlewood), and $5 million in funding to allow the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority the dozens of affordable units known as Dogwood Housing.  

When the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for the North Pointe development in August 2006, there was to be no more than 893 dwelling units. 

This year, the Great Eastern Management Company will be asked to revisit the rezoning to add 550 new homes on land currently approved for commercial development. 

“Commercial is dead and dying except for grocery stores and maybe restaurants and hotels,” says David Mitchell, construction manager for the company. “We had originally 900,000 square feet of commercial. That’s not marketable anymore.”

North Pointe is within the Hollymead neighborhood, as classified by Albemarle’s Community Development. As of July 1, only 57 of the 893 residential units had been built. According to county records, those units are among the 4,316 homes approved in Hollymead but not yet built. 

“It’s one thing to get approved, but it’s another to get it designed and built,” Mitchell says. “It takes years.” 

In 2006, Albemarle officials tended to discourage major economic development moves. Things have changed in 17 years, and Albemarle is planning to buy 462 acres surrounding the Rivanna Station military base as an investment in the county’s economic development future. County officials continue to investigate whether the land can support creation of a new Intelligence Community Innovation Acceleration Campus. 

The county’s major land purchase did not affect Great Eastern’s plans. 

“This was in the works way before,” Mitchell says, adding that he’s known for years that his company would eventually be asking for a rezoning. It’s taken a long time to build the infrastructure to support the overall development. 

Now Great Eastern wants to build up to 1,548 units at North Pointe, but is not asking to increase the number of single-family homes. That means more townhomes and multifamily apartments. 

“We are in the middle of construction of lots out of the first 269 of single-family and that’s going to be the extent of our single-family,” Mitchell says. “The property doesn’t lay out well for single-family beyond what we got.”

Albemarle is currently reviewing its Comprehensive Plan, and one question is whether the county should begin planning for expanding the amount of land where dense development can occur. Staff have noted that many rezonings have ultimately yielded fewer units than the maximums envisioned in the Comprehensive Plan.

Mitchell isn’t holding his breath. 

“Even though the county should be thinking about expanding the growth area, it’s not going to happen until it’s full,” Mitchell says. 

Just under a third of the 1,550 homes at Brookhill have been built, and there are 1,479 available units to be constructed at Hollymead Town Center. 

Final site plan review is underway for 100 units at River’s Edge North. Supervisors approved up to 332 units on the site of a former mobile community, but only 306 units are going to be built. 

Mitchell says he did not anticipate that the units would be built quickly, adding that construction costs and mortgage rates are still high. 

At press time, we’re still waiting for the final details of how Charlottesville’s future zoning rules will enable construction of more dwelling units on every single lot across the city. A public hearing and vote on the development code is expected before the end of the year. In the meantime, larger projects on larger plots of land are making their way through the existing system.   

Earlier this month, the Charlottesville Planning Commission recommended approval of a special use permit for Woodard Properties to allow additional density at 501 Cherry Ave. for a total of 118 dwelling units. As part of that project, Piedmont Housing Alliance is expected to partner to build at least 60 affordable units. 

The developer has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Fifeville Neighborhood Association to govern how neighbors might benefit from the project, including space for two nonprofits. Twice is Nice has announced it will move there when the project is complete. 

However, the Planning Commission on the same evening put an obstacle in the way of the development of 245 units on land along the Rivanna River that would be elevated out of the floodplain. The five commissioners present voted unanimously that the city’s acceptance of land from the project for public purposes would not be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. How that affects the project’s future remains to be seen. 

The August 8 Planning Commission meeting as well as the City Council meeting the night before was attended in force by people representing the new Respect the Neighbors movement, a group formed to protest additional development at Dairy Market by the Stony Point Development Group (see story on page 8). In his first meeting as City Manager, Sam Sanders announced he has begun negotiations with Chris Henry, the firm’s president.

“As he decides to move forward on his project, I stress to him that I do believe it is important for a community benefits agreement to be considered,” Sanders says. 

Stony Point Development Group has not yet filed any applications with the city for the expansion. 

Council could soon see rezonings for a nine-story building at 2117 Ivy Rd. and a 10-story building at 104 Stadium Rd. What has been requested in both projects comes close to the maximum amount allowed under the draft zoning. 

In the past year, council has approved rezonings for 170 units at 240 Stribling Ave., 119 units at 2005 Jefferson Park Ave., and 72 units at Mount View Baptist Church. 

Council also continues to spend at least $10 million a year to subsidize construction of new units. 

The first 20 households recently moved in to the first homes built as part of the newly rebranded Kindlewood (formerly known as Friendship Court). The overall project will see 150 townhouse units expanded to more than 400 apartments and townhomes. This initial phase includes 46 replacement units as well as 60 units that will be rented to households with incomes between 30 and 60 percent of the area median. Residents are also returning to Crescent Halls after its renovation by the Charlottes­ville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. In addition, that agency has completed its purchase of dozens of affordable rental units from Woodard Properties. 

The Charlottesville Planning Commission has until mid-November to hold a public hearing on new rules for development within the city’s 10 square miles. Council was expected to vote August 7 to officially refer the new zoning ordinance to the appointed body for a recommendation, even though no one but staff and consultants have seen the final version.  

The city embarked on a thorough update of its building policies in early 2020 as part of the Cville Plans Together initiative. So far that’s included adoption of a new Affordable Housing Plan as well as a Comprehensive Plan that calls for more residential density to support more opportunities for affordable housing. 

The components of the zoning code have been released in three modules. The first increased development rights for all single-family residential lots, though councilors indicated support for reducing the maximum number possible. The final details won’t be ready until the new draft is finished, sometime this month. 

The staff report for the August 7 vote states, “there has been extensive community engagement over the entire time period of the Cville Plans Together process as well as specifically in relation to the Zoning Ordinance.”

One neighborhood leader says the recent outcry about the third phase of the Dairy Market development on Preston Avenue is a sign that the city hasn’t done enough to explain the overall vision for a more dense Charlottesville. 

“What is proposed there is something the current draft zoning ordinance would allow to happen by right,” says Kellytown Neighborhood Association’s Len Schoppa. “In my own neighborhood of Kellytown, there is support for ending [single family residential] R-1 and allowing more ADU’s [accessory dwelling units] and townhouses, but all of the engagement has yet to hear residents in this area say they want 12-story apartment buildings on single-family lots.” 

Schoppa says he is also concerned about the city’s ability to handle the additional traffic that will come with more density. The current draft proposal under review has called for no parking requirements for new development. 

The first year and a half of the Cville Plans Together initiative took place during the era of virtual meetings. Becky Calvert of the Greenbrier Neighborhood says many people didn’t pay attention until recently. 

“I think there’s been engagement, but how much of that was the city and how much was just neighbors in an uproar over any changes is easily debated,” Calvert says.

Much of the purpose of Charlottesville’s land-use reform is to increase opportunities for wealth building and to ensure equity. The president of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association says she’s not sure if the city has fully hit the mark.

“I am sure a lot of community engagement has been done, but not sure that it has reached a majority of minority folks,” says Carmelita Wood. “Also there are a lot of elders who do not have internet or are handicapped and not able to get out to the events, so those voices are not heard.”

For decades Albemarle has put a premium on protecting rural land by concentrating development in about 5 percent of the county’s 726 square miles. But as the review of the Comprehensive Plan continues, community members are being asked to weigh in on where future development might go. 

“There will be places that we recognize it’s not appropriate to grow in the county,” said interim Director of Planning Kevin McDermott at a recent virtual meeting on what’s called the AC44 process. “But we have to keep the option open because if not there could be repercussions to not allowing any future development as well that might hurt the county.” 

Since adoption of the last Comprehensive Plan in 2015, Albemarle supervisors have approved a housing plan that encourages the construction of thousands of homes. The county also adopted its first economic development plan as well as a climate action plan. 

And then there’s the matter of a growing population. The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia projects a 2040 county population of 138,523, with that climbing to 155,102 10 years later. That’s up from an estimate of 115,495 in July 2022.

The current plan review asks where and when more land might be designated for supporting density. 

“The 2015 [Comprehensive] Plan estimated that about 11 percent of the development area’s land had capacity for development or redevelopment,” says Senior Planner Tori Kanellopoulos. “With the 2022 land use build out analysis, the estimated remaining development area land is about 7 percent.” 

According to McDermott, any expansion would avoid natural resources, and likely areas in the water supply watershed. He says one place to start might be areas of “stale zoning,” where uses are allowed outside of the development area but have not yet been built on due to a variety of factors. 

“As the cost of housing goes up, we can control some of those factors by allowing additional development that goes beyond the current development area,” McDermott says. “And we don’t want to start losing too many job opportunities in the county because we don’t have places where businesses can come and locate and grow in the county.” 

Planning Commissioner Lonnie Murray pushed back on the need for additional space, saying that Albemarle’s development area is much larger than the total area of the city it surrounds. 

“Charlottesville is only 10 square miles or approximately 6,500 acres,” Murray says. “Albemarle’s growth area is 23,680 acres, or 3.5 times the size of Charlottesville. If we look at Charlottesville, I would say that nobody reasonably believes that Charlottesville has run out of space yet.” 

Sally Thomas served four terms on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors during an era when economic development was not encouraged by the county government. She says a reason for the development area has been to direct limited resources into a concentrated area in order to make provision of services more likely. 

“To have the transportation available for example is much more possible when you’re not stretching out all out across the countryside,” Thomas says. “And it’s pretty well proven that additional development doesn’t guarantee lower cost housing.” 

One concern is that if the growth area is expanded prematurely, it will make it less likely that those existing commercial spaces will be redeveloped. 

Dick Ruffin, the chair of the Pantops Community Advisory Committee, says, “We already have some potential commercial spaces which are not being developed. We have a large shopping center, which is very poorly developed, and much better use could be made of it.”

Expanding the county’s growth area boundaries will be discussed at the August 8 Albemarle Planning Commission meeting. 

There has been a lot of building activity on Preston Avenue in the last 10 years, with the redevelopment of older structures into spaces for the 21st century.   

The biggest of these has been the transformation of the Monticello Dairy into a mixed-use project with a 30,000 square-foot food hall, 50,000 square feet of office space, and 180 apartments built in two phases. 

Now Stony Point Development Group has filed plans with the City of Charlottesville to expand the project to the east by building on the site of several one-story commercial buildings that house businesses such as Fifth Season Gardening, Twice is Nice, and Preston Suds. 

“The project will maximize the potential of currently underutilized light industrial buildings and surface parking, bringing needed housing and economic development to a location that is walkable to downtown Charlottesville and the University of Virginia,” says Chris Henry, SPDG’s president. 

The conceptual documents included in the announcement for a July 25 community meeting show seven stories along Preston Avenue and five stories along West Street.  

Henry says his company will seek to expand the existing special use permit due to the uncertainty of when the draft zoning code will be approved. (A final draft of the code is expected to be released later this month.) 

However, the project is raising concern among many in the 10th and Page neighborhood who say more affordable units are needed. 

Sharon Jones’ family were among those displaced at Vinegar Hill in the 1960s. She says the process with the first two phases of Dairy Market was not transparent. 

“With the affordable housing issue being at the forefront, the ‘affordable’ housing units available at 10th and Dairy are affordable only for the wealthy,” Jones said in an email. “The proposed buildings will hover over West Street and block the view that a neighborhood is there.”

Jones says she’s concerned about the loss of businesses that people in surrounding neighborhoods can walk to, such as the laundromat. 

The existing two phases of Dairy Market are all on land currently zoned Central City Corridor, a category that dates back to the 2003 rezoning, which created the possibility for additional density within Charlottesville. City Council approved a special use permit in July 2018 to allow for additional height. 

Since then, the assessed value of the two phases has increased nearly five times with a combined assessment. That means a property tax bill of nearly half a million in revenue for the city this year. 

The three properties slated for development are all designated as Corridor Mixed-Use 5 in the draft zoning code. That allows for a minimum of five stories, but allows up to seven if the project meets affordability requirements that will be embedded under the code. 

When asked, Jones says she was unaware there was work underway to change the zoning code.