Tag: Planning & Development

The July 27 community meeting about the proposed Dairy Market expansion quickly turned heated when residents of the 10th and Page neighborhood expressed their concerns and frustrations about the project.

Held at Old Trinity Church on the corner of Grady Avenue and 10th Street, the meeting included several easels, set up by Stony Point Development Group, with project plans. And while the plans did provide sufficient  project visuals, they did not give 10th and Page neighbors the answers they wanted. 

In Charlottesville, developers are required to hold a community meeting before applying for city permits, and they must notify residents within 500 feet of the proposed new development. The current expansion plans would triple the size of Dairy Market, resulting in the removal of several beloved community businesses, including the Twice is Nice thrift shops, Preston Suds laundromat, and Fifth Season Gardening.

While the potential loss of each of these businesses is troubling for the community, the forced closing of the laundromat is particularly problematic. Many of the houses in the 10th and Page neighborhood do not have washers and dryers, and the next closest laundry service is located on Hydraulic Road. For residents without reliable transportation, removing Preston Suds would make laundry expensive and inaccessible.

“They gonna have to walk all the way to Hydraulic Road just to wash their clothes,” said Vizena Howard, president of the 10th and Page Neighborhood Association, at the meeting. “You gonna give them bus fare? Are you going to give them a shuttle?”

Responding to concern about removing Preston Suds, SPDG President Chris Henry said plans for a new laundromat could potentially be added to the project plans. However, replacing the business with a new laundry facility would be complicated, especially given tensions between residents of Dairy Market apartments and the surrounding neighborhoods. Following up on Henry’s response, Howard asked, “Is it going to be for the [apartment] residents, are you going to need a key to get in?”

Residents are also worried about worsening the current parking situation in the neighborhood. While Dairy Market does have a pay-to-park lot, many people are parking along the streets of 10th and Page to avoid fees. Area Garlend, who lives close to Dairy Market, reported that people have left trash in her mailbox, and employees have been rude when parking in front of her house.

“You are coming into our space—and I do understand that if something is for sale or for rent, you guys have every right to come in and purchase—but I do think that it is important to include [the] neighborhood in that, and create community. And it’s been very separate,” said Garlend. “It seems like the only thing I’ve gotten is higher taxes.”

Beyond the proposed expansion, residents of the 10th and Page neighborhood report that developers have reneged on previous commitments to the community. From promises of a community center at Old Trinity Church to a lack of affordable housing in the new apartment complexes, many said they felt betrayed by developers. Of the 180 apartments at 10th and Dairy, only 15 are affordable units adjusted for those who are low income, based on the U.S. Housing and Urban Development guidelines. (The low-income 10th and Dairy apartments run between $300 and $600 less than their market-price equivalents, which start at $2,066 a month for a one-bedroom.) 

At the core of the 10th and Page neighborhood’s concerns was the lack of a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant or a community engagement leader. Leading the conversation, Zyahna Bryant, a local activist and Howard’s granddaughter, expressed her frustration about the lack of DEI consideration given to a project that’s located in a historically Black neighborhood that’s experiencing rapid gentrification—a project that uses images of Black women on the outside of its building, despite a lack of Black business owners inside the complex.

While the Dairy Market project is not located at the site of Vinegar Hill, many people drew connections between the current development and the Black neighborhood that was destroyed in the name of urban renewal in 1964.

“All this was Vinegar Hill at one point in time,” said activist Rosia Parker.

Responding to frustrations at the lack of DEI oversight or community consideration, Henry said the group will take it into consideration. “I’ll tell you I also know that I’m not the right person to put that together. I’m happy to provide all the help and connections and support,” he said. “It needs a different leader, it can’t be me.”

“I agree,” said Bryant. “But you’ve gotta hire for it. Nobody [is] gonna keep doing free labor and having people’s forums in the middle of your gallery walks for free. You’re gonna have to do some paying, some salaries, something.”

“You’re asking the residents to meet you where they’re at,” Bryant said. “But you’re not meeting them where they are.”

While Stony Point Development Group has indicated that it will delay going to the Planning Commission on August 8, as originally scheduled, the neighbors will continue to organize. Speaking toward the end of the meeting, activist Tanesha Hudson urged the 10th and Page community to show up at City Council meetings and any Planning Commission meetings about the project.

Sen. Tim Kaine visited Southwood Mobile Home Park to tour the redevelopment site and meet with residents and Habitat for Humanity on April 21. 

Located just south of Charlottesville, the Southwood community is home to more than 1,500 people, and spans over 100 acres. After experiencing extreme sewage problems and pressures from law enforcement, Southwood’s previous owner sold the property to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville in 2007.

Since the purchase, Habitat has worked in collaboration with residents to redevelop the area with minimal displacement. By moving in phases, residents have been able to stay in their homes during the development.

Amid the ongoing construction, the neighborhood continues to thrive. The renovated Boys & Girls Club sits at the heart of the community, and multiple residents run businesses from their trailers and in the green area surrounding the mobile home park. Many families have lived at Southwood for decades; even temporarily relocating residents outside of the park would disrupt their lives and the community.

“It’s almost never the same people who come back, who got displaced, “ Kaine said while touring Phase I of the construction. The senator praised the redevelopment process at Southwood: “The model here is in this sizable project, to do it in phases, where you never have to displace anyone.”

Housing has been a major focus of Kaine’s political agenda since the beginning of his career. As a former fair housing attorney, Kaine has decades of experience in the field, and is a longtime champion of affordable housing. At Southwood, the senator was able to see direct results of his housing policies and hard-won federal funding.

During his visit, Kaine spoke with residents and Habitat for Humanity leaders in Spanish and English. One Southwood resident, a leader in the development, met with Kaine at the entryway to her nearly completed new home. Tearfully, she spoke about how the project has allowed her and her family the opportunity to obtain their dreams of homeownership.

“The most impressive thing is talking to the residents about the way they have tried to design this and then work with the county officials to make it happen,” Kaine said. “Again and again they were talking about ‘sueños’: You have enabled us to achieve our dreams.”

Habitat for Humanity’s work at Southwood is remarkable for its model of redevelopment. Instead of a traditional path, which presents a plan to the city with minimal community input, Southwood’s residents have been deeply involved in their neighborhood’s improvement since the beginning. The resident-led model of redevelopment demonstrates the potential of non-traditional housing projects. 

Unlike a majority of affordable housing projects, Habitat for Humanity is focusing on constructing houses rather than apartments at Southwood. This has allowed residents to select the design of their homes, and provides an accessible pathway to homeownership.

Kaine said it was this unique emphasis on homeownership that drove his visit as he works on another housing bill in the Senate. There are a multitude of state and federally subsidized apartment programs, but a lack of affordable housing efforts that provide a road to ownership.

Locally, rising home prices and a major lack of affordable housing has created a housing crisis. While the city and county have taken steps to improve the situation, a lack of appropriations continues to undermine efforts. Despite the pressing need for affordable housing and resources for lower income residents, projects like the Pathways Community Resource Helpline have run out of funding (see p. 11).

Beyond Charlottesville, housing is a major issue in Virginia and the United States. “As I was traveling around Virginia 10 years ago, housing would be in the top 10 issues, but not the top five,” Kaine said. “As I travel around Virginia now, housing is almost always in the top three.”

“I think what’s [going to] be an example about this project for others is this resident-led design,” Kaine said. “And the fact that the county officials were willing … to go with that, and learn and do it.” 

Although Southwood’s circumstances are unique, Kaine believes the neighborhood highlights the merit and importance of community driven and responsive redevelopment. “I think other counties and cities can do the same thing.” 

Rebecca Reilly was one of five Charlottesville residents to sign a petition urging FEMA to reconsider regulatory changes made to allow real estate development on the floodplain of the Rivanna River. 

“Unfortunately, we weren’t aware of the change in the map within 90 days,” said Reilly. “So FEMA’s response was we didn’t respond quickly enough.”

The piano teacher remains determined to stop this development. She is the president of Circus Grounds Preservation Corporation, a new nonprofit that describes itself as a “group of neighbors” raising funds for the city to buy the land and preserve it for recreational use.

Reilly worries that the construction of a 19-foot wall on the floodplains could permanently disrupt the natural environment.

“But our top concerns right now have to do with the actual safety of the people that currently live there,” Reilly told C-VILLE.

Kirk Bowers, a licensed professional civil engineer and environmental activist, called the land “the worst place around here” to build housing, citing flooding concerns and traffic congestion.

“That whole intersection will need to be rebuilt in order to accommodate vehicular movements,” he said.

Reilly also noted that the developers, local real estate firm Seven Development LLC and Shimp Engineering, declined a request by the Office of Community Solutions to allot 10 percent of the units as affordable housing.

“One- and two-bedroom luxury units that have been clearly stated to not be affordable housing are not going to solve the problem that our city is facing right now,” she said.

In a press release sent to local media on February 16, the group claimed that Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook “has been made aware” of the new nonprofit. Reilly said she had not spoken to the mayor directly, but the group’s pro bono lawyer had “a few conversations with [Snook] … and some email exchanges as well.”

When C-VILLE first contacted Snook for an interview, he curtly replied “I don’t know anything about [Circus Grounds Preservation Corporation].” When the group’s objective was explained to him, however, he was receptive.

“We’re talking about trying to build in a floodplain, which as a general proposition, we don’t want to encourage. It may be a particularly appropriate time and situation for [the city to buy the property].” Snook noted that funding could be a limiting factor.

“If a private entity, nonprofit of some sort, is saying we’re gonna raise the money to help make this a park then that makes it a whole lot easier. I would be very interested in a proposal like that,” he said.

City Councilor Michael Payne argued that the development conflicts with long-term plans made by the city.

“Under our Future Land Use Map, the density in this area is substantially lower than what the developer is currently proposing,” he said. “In addition, they’re currently avoiding our inclusionary zoning requirements, which would require affordable housing at 60 percent AMI [area median income] or below to be included in the development.” 

Payne noted that the Urban Rivanna River Corridor Plan calls for the city to “carefully guide development to ensure that no damage is done to the Rivanna River watershed, and that the area is preserved as a public space.”

“Ultimately,” he said, “the question in my mind is: Do we envision any areas in the city we want to protect as public parks and accessible natural areas? Do we want to create any public areas where the community can come together without needing to pay money? Or do we want to privatize our entire city?”

It’s often said at land use public hearings that there should be more places to live in Albemarle and Charlottesville. Both communities have adopted policies that seek to build thousands of units, and they’re challenged by housing advocates to spend millions a year to help keep them within financial reach of those with lower incomes. 

What actually gets built is a combination of what the private sector is willing to risk building and what nonprofit housing developers are able to cobble together. A lot happened in 2022 to help measure progress that may or may not be happening.

This year, Charlottesville City Council successfully fought off a legal challenge against the November 2021 adoption of the Comprehensive Plan, but it will begin in 2023 looking for a new city attorney. There are at least two pending land use lawsuits, and there will likely be others. 

Meanwhile, the zoning code is being rewritten to allow every property to have at least three units without further approval from City Council.

Albemarle County is reviewing its land-use rules and regulations now, but most of the conversations on zoning and growth have been in smaller meetings out of the spotlight. At the same time, the school board and parents are warning that classrooms are getting more crowded and new buildings are needed soon. 

Toward a denser Charlottesville

Charlottesville’s future zoning code is intended to eliminate the role that public hearings play in the land use process. In 2022, there were several high-profile rezonings and other land use decisions that will add more residential density across the city. 

Council approved a special use permit in September that will bring 119 units to 2005 Jefferson Park Ave. A month later, several neighborhoods filed suit. Council also approved a rezoning on around 12 acres in Fry’s Spring off of Stribling Avenue that hinged on Southern Development loaning the money to build a sidewalk on the rural-like urban street. That is the subject of another lawsuit. Will the sidewalk be ready in time?

Council will not likely be directly involved in another development that could end up in court as well because it’s a by-right project. Seven Development filed a plan to build 245 units off of East High Street in three buildings constructed on imported dirt to raise them out of the flood plain. An opposition group has retained counsel to challenge the developer’s contention that the project must be approved if it meets the letter of the city’s technical requirements. 

But, for those with means, that may be another avenue to stop development. 

One of the plaintiffs in the JPA lawsuit is Jimmy Wright, the CEO of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. Wright owns a house on Observatory Avenue, but the foundation’s headquarters are located on Maury Avenue. This year, council approved a special use permit for Southern Development to build 64 units. The foundation bought the land for $4.3 million, killing the project. 

In the future, all projects could be more like the East High project. A major goal of the zoning rewrite is to eliminate the role City Council plays in deciding these issues. A major question in the 2023 election will be whether that’s really what Charlottesville voters want. 

The Affordable Housing Plan adopted in March 2021 calls for council to invest at least $10 million a year in construction of new units. Both the Piedmont Housing Authority and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority made progress this year toward projects they’ve had funded by the city. 

Prep work for the first phase of Friendship Court’s redevelopment transitioned into the first units coming out of the ground. There have been delays in the renovation of CRHA’s Crescent Halls as well as the first new public housing units in a generation. New tenants are expected to move in soon. The public housing agency also tapped into money set aside for rental vouchers to buy three properties that will remain deeply affordable units. 

Piedmont Housing Alliance also anticipates public funding for two projects on Park Street for which council made approvals despite arguments from nearby residents that the roadway can’t handle the traffic. Currently no bus routes travel that way. Transit is often seen as a solution to congestion, but route changes that were approved in the summer of 2021 will not go into effect until at least the end of 2023. 

No matter how the zoning rewrite ends up, the city has struggled this year to process building permits. There was a two-week pause in accepting new ones in late May. A building official was in place by early September, and this will continue to be an area to watch. 

Albemarle County prepares for growth

Since 1980, Albemarle has had a growth management policy that directs growth into the 5 percent of its land mass designated for density. The idea is to conserve the rural area and to try to ensure infrastructure in a locality that has grown from 83,532 people in 2000 to an estimated 113,535 in 2021. This policy is getting its first major scrutiny in the first phase of the county’s Comprehensive Plan review that is currently underway. 

Since 1980, the build-out for many rezonings has come in below the maximum size allowed. That provides fuel for those who would like to expand the growth area, but others argue the existing areas just need to be bigger. In October, the Planning Commission encouraged the potential developer of one property on U.S. 29 to go higher than five stories. The land is currently the home of C’ville Oriental. 

However, the Planning Commission recommended denial in late November of a plan to build 525 units on Old Ivy Road out of a concern that the additional development will overwhelm the two-lane road. The developer will take its chances early next year before the Board of Supervisors. Nearby, the University of Virginia has plans to redevelop Ivy Gardens for over 700 units, but there is no timetable for when that might actually happen. 

In November, the Albemarle supervisors approved the second phase of a rezoning for the conversion of Southwood Mobile Home Park to a mixed-income community. The first phase has been under construction on land just outside the original park, and will feature a mix of market-rate and subsidized units. The second phase will add between 557 and 1,000 units, and 227 of them must be below market. The final negotiations hinged on how much Albemarle will have to pay for a potential site for a future school.  

University of Virginia continues to acquire properties

This year the first buildings began to come out of the ground at the University of Virginia’s new Emmet-Ivy corridor. The school’s foundation has spent years consolidating properties for a future precinct that will include the School of Data Science, a new hotel and conference center, and the Karsh Institute of Democracy. 

But UVA’s appetite for land continues. The property that currently houses Moe’s Original BBQ sold for $2.25 million in late October to an LLC associated with the UVA Foundation. This land across from Davenport Field is next to Foods of All Nations, which the foundation bought for $20 million in late 2021. There are currently no long-term plans for what might happen there. 

Another refrain from housing advocates is that the University of Virginia should house more of its students. Darden may do just that with a future master plan. 

There was also some progress this year toward UVA’s pledge to work with a development partner to build between 1,000 and 1,500 affordable units in the community. Two out of three sites identified are moving forward, and the next milestone is to send out a formal bid for firms to build the projects on land owned by UVA or the foundation. 

UVA effectively increased its influence over land use decisions in Albemarle when two top officials were appointed to the Planning Commission. Luis Carrazana is the associate architect for the University of Virginia and Fred Missel is the director of design and development for the UVA Foundation. 

Meanwhile, UVA prepares for the future by agreeing to demolish some of the past. The Board of Visitors approved a plan to take down University Gardens on Emmet Street, citing the high expense of refitting the existing buildings for the 21st century. 

In April, Khalesha Powell received an important notice: She needed to find a new place for her family to live before her building in the South First Street public housing site is demolished and redeveloped next year. Since then, Powell, a single mother of eight children, says she has applied to live at over a dozen properties, but has been repeatedly denied, racking up hundreds of dollars in application fees.

Landlords who own three or more properties are legally required to accept housing vouchers in Virginia, but Powell says she’s been met with a variety of reasons for denial of her applications.

“I’ve been denied for credit, I’ve been denied for occupancy … they deny you for all kinds of things,” says Powell, who has lived at the 41-year-old public housing complex with her children for nine years. “Sometimes it makes you wonder if they’re denying you because they just don’t want to take the voucher.”

In documents Powell shared with C-VILLE, one property owner cited Powell’s monthly income, number of occupants, and her credit score as reasons why her application was rejected, while another cited her
credit score. Four landlords responded to her inquiry about their four- or five-bedroom rental home saying that they did not accept vouchers. 

Powell says she was originally supposed to receive a relocation voucher, which would have reimbursed her for housing application fees, and paid for her deposit and first month’s rent. But the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority gave her a tenant-based housing choice voucher, which does not cover any of it.

“I haven’t gotten an application fee less than $50—all that adds up,” says Powell. “For me to have to come out of pocket with a lot of this stuff is crappy.”

According to CRHA executive director John Sales, the CRHA has yet to receive relocation vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, so it has only been able to distribute tenant-based vouchers.

It’s also been a challenge finding a new home large enough for her family, says Powell, who currently lives in a five-bedroom unit at South First Street. The number of four- and five-bedroom rental properties is limited in Charlottesville, and some landlords would rather rent to students.

“Mostly every four- and five-bedroom that’s been listed [that accepts vouchers], I’ve applied to,” she says. “It’s a lot of getting your hopes up, then your hopes being taken down.”

Instead of a voucher, Powell was told she could move to Hardy Drive. However, around the time she was offered that option, she says her 17-year-old son was jumped by some neighborhood kids, and she did not want to put him in danger. The recent shootings on and near Hardy Drive also made her wary of moving there.

When she first began her housing search, Powell says she found one landlord who was willing to accept her voucher, but, due to delays in receiving vouchers from HUD, CRHA hadn’t given her one. Her application eventually fell through. In September, she finally received the tenant-based voucher, which is set to expire on December 22. She can then receive up to two 30-day extensions, but if she is not given additional extensions, she worries she’ll lose the voucher.

“Where is me and my children going to go if I can’t find no one to take my voucher?” she asks. 

Last year, the city broke ground on the long-awaited, multi-phase South First Street redevelopment project. Last month, residents began moving into phase one’s three new apartment buildings, featuring 63 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. In phase two, set to begin in March or April, the 58 existing units will be replaced with 113 multi-family units, including townhouses and apartments with one to five bedrooms. The planning process for phase three, which will involve the land across the street from the original units, has not yet begun.

Sales stresses that CRHA will ensure no one is left homeless due to the public housing redevelopment. Families with housing vouchers who are unable to secure new housing will instead be moved to Hardy Drive.

Out of South First Street’s 58 families, 16 have already moved to other public housing sites, according to Sales. Forty will either be moved to the new South First Street units, or transferred to other public housing. Powell’s family is one of two who are using a voucher, and still looking for a place to accept it.

To assist voucher recipients with their housing search, CRHA has offered new landlords bonuses for accepting vouchers during the pandemic, thanks to additional HUD funding. It also plans to request city funding for landlord incentives, like those funded by Albemarle County.

Regarding voucher rejections, “if we do find out about it and feel like we can help … we do call the landlord. I’ve spoken with several landlords to try to get them to understand the type of situation we’re in,” says Sales. “But the voucher market is a private market, and we really have no control over the landlords setting their rents and requirements.”

“We really have to almost accept what we get,” he adds.

Eric Schmitz came back from the holidays last December and found a letter about plans to develop 17.5 acres on two parcels in front of Western Ridge in Crozet. “I know it well,” he says. “The future development was on top of a stream.” But on the Albemarle County map, the stream was no longer there.

He attended a Crozet Community Advisory Committee meeting about Montclair, the proposed 157-unit development off Route 240, where he was told that when county officials went out there, there was no stream, says Schmitz. “My eyes weren’t lying.”

Why a county stream, which has been on maps for 170 years and is presumably protected by Albemarle’s Water Protection Ordinance, was removed—along with its 100-foot buffers on each side—from county GIS maps shortly before the Board of Supervisors approved the Crozet Master Plan in October 2021, and before a developer asked for a rezoning to build on the stream site, is not crystal clear. 

“We don’t have a good sense of why that happened,” says Joe Fore, chair of the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, which had been reviewing the master plan. “The first thing that seemed strange was that it was very late in the process. People felt blindsided. There was no chance to review.”

The plans to rezone the site sans stream, originally reported by Crozet Gazette, drew widespread opposition among Crozetians, who formed Crozet United and filed a citizen suit under the Clean Water Act against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The basis of the complaint, says Schmitz, is that the developer piped a stream under an invalid permit.

On March 20, 2021, county engineer Frank Pohl and the Army Corps’ Vinny Pero found a stream on the property, according to an email from Pohl obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. By August 31, 2021, Pohl says the map will change because the owner of the parcel—Highlands West LP—had piped a section of the stream. 

During summer 2021, Montclair’s engineer, Justin Shimp, buried a 203-foot portion of the stream, says an email from Shimp Engineering. The county did not require a permit because Shimp said he was moving under 10,000 square feet of earth, explains Pohl in a January 21, 2022, email to Schmitz and Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek. 

Shimp received a verbal okay from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under its Non-Reporting Nationwide 18 permit, says the email. Once the stream was underground, the segment no longer required a 100-foot buffer.

Shimp, who has been stalled on other projects involving water, most recently the 0 East High Street 245 apartments in the Rivanna River floodplain, did not return multiple phone calls from C-VILLE.

Through the course of 168 pages of FOIAed emails, county officials began to say the Army Corps had designated the remaining segments of the stream “ephemeral,” making them eligible to be removed from the map as well.

Not true, say three Corps officials, who denied ever reclassifying the stream as ephemeral in a July 22 email. Nor does the group determine whether to remove a stream from the map, says the Corps’ Pero. “We just determine whether it’s a ‘water of the United States.’” And he confirmed that the Montclair stream was, indeed, a “water of the U.S.”

Schmitz calls the ability to pipe streams without county oversight a huge loophole, and he believes a developer could bury an entire stream by doing it in segments. He worries that the same dodging of the Water Protection Ordinance could happen again. “Everyone understands it’s broken,” he says. 

Even Mallek, whose White Hall District includes Crozet, had a hard time getting a straight answer about the “stream erasure.” In a September 5 memo to her fellow supes, she writes, “Despite repeated requests from me since January and again March 2022, and from residents at CCAC and to County staff by community members, the only documentation presented for erasure of the stream in the last days of adoption of the Crozet Master Plan is a reported word of mouth declaration by the [Corps] of non-stream status. Now we learn that report is not accurate.” 

Despite the Corps’ assurance that the stream existed, Community Development Director Jodie Filardo announced at the September 6 supervisors meeting the hiring of an outside consultant to determine whether the two unpiped segments of the stream were, in fact, intermittent streams that required 100-foot stream buffers under the county’s Water Protection Ordinance. 

Filardo noted a “conflict of interest” with county engineer Pohl, who used to work for developer Vito Cetta. County spokesperson Emily Kilroy clarifies that Filardo used “conflict of interest“ in a “colloquial sense,” not a legal one implying financial interest. “There was a concern there may be the perception of a conflict because over a decade ago he worked for the applicant.”

On October 13, Ecosystem Services determined both stream segments were intermittent, and Pohl agreed, saying in an October 19 letter to the property owner that they would be added back to the county GIS stream buffer mapping.

Highlands West hired its own consultant, Wetland Studies and Solutions, which determined part of Segment 2 and all of Segment 3 are ephemeral. On November 18, Shimp filed a notice of appeal with the county.

With the stream buffers back—at least at the moment, Cetta says he plans to resubmit a smaller, 77-unit project in the next month or so. The revised Montclair will have 20 villas in the $625,000 to $700,000 range, and townhouses for $425K to $475K, with 12 carved out as affordable units for Habitat for Humanity.

Asked if he had any insights about why a stream was removed from the GIS map of a parcel he planned to build on, Cetta says, “That’s a county question.” 

After purchasing the Red Carpet Inn off Route 29 in Albemarle County last March, the Piedmont Housing Alliance renovated the 40-year-old rundown motel, and transformed it into an emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness, thanks to a $4.25 million grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. Since the low-barrier shelter—managed by People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry and the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless—opened its doors last May, it has provided 177 unhoused people a safe, welcoming place to stay, in addition to meals, clothing, case management, health care, employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, and other necessities and resources.

But in April, the Premier Circle shelter will shut down, and the former motel will be transformed once again into something desperately needed in the Charlottesville area: affordable housing.

Virginia Supportive Housing plans to start building 80 permanent supportive housing units at the site in May. The studio apartments will be available to single adults experiencing homelessness, or earning below 50 percent of the area median income. On-site supportive services, like case management, will be available to residents, as well as a fitness center, community room, laundry facility, and other amenities. VSH has received low-income tax credit awards to help pay for the approximately $20 million project, but is working to secure around $3 million more in funding. Construction is expected to last about 15 months, and be completed in fall 2024, according to Director of Real Estate Development Julie Anderson. 

After VSH finishes construction, the PHA plans to build around 50 affordable housing units for low-income people making no more than 60 percent AMI. While the project’s design has not been finalized yet, PHA CEO Sunshine Mathon expects the complex to be a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, and says the residents may have access to some of VSH’s services, like counseling. Over the next one to two years, PHA will apply for low-income tax credits for the project, and hopes to complete construction 14 to 18 months after breaking ground.

“We’ve been blessed to have a supportive city, county, [and] state to make this project work,”  says BRACH Executive Director Anthony Haro. “We’re excited for the next stage.”

This month, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County gave $200,000 each to the shelter, covering its operating expenses from January until it closes its doors in April—a “big relief” for the shelter’s management, says Haro.

“A lot of the funding we used … over the last two years has been COVID relief funding at the state and local levels,” says Haro. “These last few months, we needed some more funding support to make it through, and really help folks transition over these next four months into housing.”

Since this spring, PACEM and BRACH have been working closely with shelter guests—many of whom are elderly, and have serious illnesses—to create housing plans and find them a new place to live, in partnership with local housing authorities. In mid-October, the shelter stopped accepting new guests, in order to focus on transitioning guests into permanent housing. Between 60 and 70 people currently live at the shelter, according to PACEM Executive Director Jayson Whitehead.

“We’ve had different types of housing vouchers dedicated to folks living at this site, so we’ve been able to transition around 15 folks to permanent housing since September,” says Whitehead.

The deteriorating condition of the former motel has further stressed the need for permanent housing solutions. Though 92 of the facility’s 115 rooms were renovated, “we did start to really experience at some point this past summer really sizable failure in rooms,” says Whitehead, “like roof leaks, floors giving way—all types of things that really were reducing the amount of rooms we had to offer.” 

Once the shelter shuts down and housing construction begins, PACEM and BRACH will still work to find emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness, and connect them with affordable housing. During the cold winter months, PACEM will also continue to offer overnight shelter at local churches, gymnasiums, and other community spaces. The organization opened its annual temporary congregate shelters on November 14, and plans to close them at the end of March. “We’ve been pretty full,” says Whitehead.

Additionally, BRACH currently has two hotel rooms available for unhoused people who are at high risk of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19 and need to avoid congregate settings, thanks to a partnership with the University of Virginia.

“We haven’t received many requests [for the rooms] … over the past six months or so, [but] that may change this winter,” says Haro. “It’s been a great resource when it comes up.”

But to ensure no one has to sleep on the streets at any time of year, the organizations are working to eventually open a permanent shelter. When PACEM’s temporary shelters are not running, the Salvation Army’s 58-bed overnight shelter is the sole year-round option for unhoused people in Charlottesville—and it’s often at capacity. 

“There’s a clear need for [another year-round shelter] in the community,” says Haro. “And there’s been an interest from PACEM and our partners to make that happen.”