Drew Holzwarth – C-VILLE Weekly

Fate uncertain: Historic Crozet home in path of subdivision

Wayland House, on Pleasant Green Street in Crozet, may be the oldest existing house in town, dating to about 1814. And it may disappear as a new development arrives.

The house was built by a reverend, whose more famous son, Benjamin Franklin Ficklin Jr., operated stagecoaches and helped establish the legendary Pony Express mail service (he also owned Monticello, briefly).

For the past two decades, Wayland House and the home next door were owned by Mike Marshall, editor of the Crozet Gazette. Marshall says rising taxes led him to sell the properties last October, and the new owner is a developer: Stanley Martin Homes, based in Reston.

Marshall’s taxes rose because the county zoned the properties R-6—townhome density, he says.

Owners “are leveraged out of big parcels” if buyers want land to develop, Marshall says. “They taxed me as if I had built the allowable number of units, almost a prospective tax.” Annual taxes ran his family $20,000 to $22,000.

“We held onto it as long as we could,” he says.

Drew Holzwarth, president of the Piedmont region for Stanley Martin, has said the Marshalls’ 1917 farmhouse will be a clubhouse for the 37-acre Pleasant Green development. Plans call for 268 units made up of townhouses, condos, and larger villas.

Wayland House itself could meet differing fates: demolition, being updated or preserved on site, being moved, or salvaged, says Marshall. Updating the house could be an expensive proposition: Marshall cites an architect who estimated $1 million to bring the house up to modern standards.

Holzwarth says his company can’t make any decisions on the house because Marshall still owns the rights to it. But Marshall says he only owns the salvage rights, which would only kick in if the house is demolished (and he worries contents would not be worth the cost of salvage).

Abraham Wayland expanded the family orchard business, which led to train tracks coming to the house and the village dubbed Wayland’s Crossing. Courtesy David Wayland

Phil James, a local expert in Blue Ridge history, says the house is worth keeping. “It represents the beginning of the village.”

Jeremiah Wayland purchased the home in 1832, says James. His son, Abraham Wayland, expanded the family farming business with orchards, which required transportation. The railroad tracks soon ran to the house, and the village became known as Wayland’s Crossing.

In 1849, Claudius Crozet and his team boarded in the house as he directed construction of the famed Blue Ridge tunnel. Because of the benefits the railroad conferred, the village changed its name to Crozet in 1870.

Historic photo of Wayland House. The window behind the tree on the lower level is the room where Claudius Crozet stayed. courtesy Phil James Historical Images

“Mike has been a wonderful steward,” James says.

Even though his great-great grandfather purchased the home, David Wayland visited its inside for the first time in March. “I was surprised that it was in such good shape, with a beautiful staircase in the entry hall, for example,” he says. “I would love to see it moved.”

The staircase in Wayland House. Courtesy David Wayland

UVA professor and architectural historian K. Edward Lay gave Wayland the tour. He saw the Roman numerals on some beams, an old way of marking beams for connection. Lay hopes that someone might preserve the original, central portion of the Greek Revival house, called an “I house.”

Holzwarth says he’s committed to doing what can be done to preserve the historic home, because he doesn’t want to be “vilified” like another developer, who tore down a historic house on Blue Ridge Avenue in 2017 to make way for The Vue apartments.

However, he warns that because the house was built in so many sections, it may fall apart if moved. Wayland House’s location is not in the first phase of Pleasant Green development. Holzwarth says, “I told Mike, ‘It’s not imminent, let’s get a plan.’”

Lay is on the Albemarle County Historic Preservation Committee, which tried twice to pass an ordinance that would safeguard significant properties. The city has such an ordinance.

Laments Lay, “So many historic homes in the county are destroyed.”

Eviction outrage: Landlord says he’s committed to affordable housing

More than 100 people representing a dozen organizations rallied and marched in support of residents of Belmont Apartments May 5, the same day tenants whose leases have expired were told to vacate their apartments at 1000 Monticello Rd.

The Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition gathered representatives from activist and faith groups to march from Belmont to the Free Speech Wall and call for owner Drew Holzwarth to keep the 23 units in the complex affordable and to allow the residents, may of whom are elderly, disabled, or low-income, to stay in their apartments.

In a May 6 statement, Holzwarth says that ultimately, if he can build another 11 micro-apartments at the site, 23 units will remain affordable at the 46-year-old complex.

The property was sold by its longtime owners in January 2018 for $2 million to Core Real Estate, which then sold it to Holzwarth’s Piedmont Realty Holdings a year later for $2.75 million.

Elaine Poon with Legal Aid Justice Center and other members of the housing coalition met with Holzwarth and “suggested he consider selling to a nonprofit,” she says. “He did not take the bait.”

Antoine Parker has lived in Belmont Apartments for six years, and says when the complex sold for the second time in a year, “my antenna went up.” Parker has not found a new place to live, and he notes that most of the tenants are older and are being uprooted from their homes.

He says he understands that the evictions are a “business decision,” but he asks, “At what point do you have a moral obligation to give [tenants] some help?”

Thomas Holden is legally blind from early onset macular degeneration. He says he’s found a new place “across town,” and it costs more than the $600 he’s currently paying for his one-bedroom apartment.

Holzwarth, who built Piedmont Place in Crozet and is president of Stanley Martin Homes Piedmont region, seems astounded that he’s been cast as the bad guy in this scenario. He says he’s a local philanthropist who’s done quite a bit for affordable housing. Of the rally, he says, “I’m a little disillusioned.”

After closing on the apartments, “we learned that the project has been the victim of significant neglect, and the tenants were living in conditions which were and should be unacceptable to them,” he says in a statement.

It was not possible to do the major renovation, including re-plumbing, replacing the HVAC systems, and fumigating the building, while the residents were still there, he says. His company and BMC Property Management will work with tenants to make sure no one became homeless, and he insists that no one’s lease was terminated that was still in effect. “Tenants will not be required to vacate without a safe place to go,” he says.

In meeting with the housing coalition, Holzwarth says he realized he could get a special use permit to add 11 micro-apartments. He’s pledged to keep those units affordable for people earning 70 percent of the area median income, “an ambitious challenge with new construction.”

With 68 percent of the apartments affordable, Holzwarth says that could be a model for other developers. “[W]e are making a significant personal and financial commitment to helping address the affordable housing crisis in the City of Charlottesville.”

Building the additional units “was actually our idea,” Poon says, and she offered to help Holzwarth get affordable housing credits.

And while she appreciates his goal to keep units affordable, “at the moment, disabled individuals are struggling to find a place to live.” She’d like Holzwarth to come back to the table and says, “It’s not a huge ask to let a handful of residents stay at the rent they’re at now.”

Correction May 8: If he’s allowed to build the 11 micro-apartments, Holzwarth plans to make those affordable for people earning 70 percent of the area median income, not 23 units as originally reported. Twelve units in the renovated complex will be affordable under HUD guidelines of 80 percent area median income.