Tag: Real Estate Weekly

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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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Change of plans?

The BAR recently reviewed plans for a proposed downtown hotel that would feature 160 rooms for visitors, rather than more than 100 places for people to live. Image by NBJ Architecture.

The developer of a planned nine-story apartment building at 218 W. Market St. is considering building a hotel there instead.

“It’s a great opportunity to further expose the Downtown Mall to visitors coming into Charlottesville, and increase the vitality of our downtown,” says Jeffrey Levien of Heirloom Development.

In September 2020, City Council granted Levien’s company a special use permit for additional height and residential density for up to 134 apartments. On Tuesday, April 9, the Board of Architectural Review had a preliminary discussion on new plans that would instead see a six-story building with 160 rooms.

The BAR approved a demolition permit for the existing site in November 2021, but that authority runs out next March.

An official application has not yet been filed, and any new proposal will be reviewed under the city’s new zoning code. The Timmons Group developed a preliminary concept plan for a six-story building in which guests would be dropped off on Market Street. There would be 160 rooms in a 139,315 square-foot building. The new zoning does not require any parking spaces, but the structure’s plans include 116 spots in an internal garage.

The property is currently the home of a shopping center that still houses Artful Lodger and The Livery Stable. Last August, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for a new home for Artful Lodger at 2428 Richmond Rd.

Heirloom Development also created the 57-unit Six Hundred West Main apartment building that’s located behind the Blue Moon Diner. In addition, the company has plans to construct a similar residential structure next door, on the site of a former automotive repair shop.

Levien says that project is on hold while his company evaluates whether
it may be better to proceed under the new zoning.

“It will take a considerable amount of design and costing and underwriting to figure that out,” he says.

If 218 W. Market St. does become a hotel, it would be next door to the Omni, which recently completed a $15 million renovation project.
Elsewhere in Charlottesville, the 198-room Forum Hotel at the Darden School of Business opened last April, and the University of Virginia is constructing the 217-room Virginia Guesthouse as part of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor.

Last April, the burned-down husk of the Excel Inn was demolished to make way for a replacement seven-story, 72-room hotel. City Council approved a special use permit for that in October 2018, but the project has not moved forward.

There are currently no plans for anything to happen with the abandoned Downtown Mall shell, which is owned by Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry. It has now been more than 15 years since construction halted, and nearly 12 since Dewberry bought the property at auction for $6.25 million, and promised a luxury hotel.

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One exit

The Altamont Circle apartments, which were built in 1929, have only a single staircase. Photo by Albemarle County.

Any structure erected in Virginia must conform to building codes created around a century ago to ensure safe construction methods are followed and that people inside can get out if there’s a fire. Such provisions spread across the country after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in March 1911 in New York City that led to the deaths of 146 workers who were blocked from leaving the burning building.

Virginia updates its code every three years, and several advocates of reducing the cost to construct housing have been lobbying for deregulation of some aspects, such as mandates that multifamily buildings have two staircases and at least two ways out.

Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation directing state officials to convene a group to study the possibility of allowing only one exit for apartment buildings up to six stories.

“This puts the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development in the best possible position to make positive changes in the building code to improve safety and affordability and allow the kinds of high-quality ‘missing middle’ designs common in other countries and Seattle and New York City,” says Charlottesville Planning Commission member Lyle Solla-Yates.

Both Solla-Yates and Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg participated in a DHCD workgroup in the spring of 2022 to suggest reform. Neither is an architect or civil engineer.

In June of that year, Solla-Yates put forward a proposal to allow up to 20 units in a five-story building. He claimed the cost of requiring an additional staircase added $380,000 to the cost of a building. The idea had the support of a fellow workgroup member who works for the Home Builders Association of Virginia.

However, the minutes of the meeting indicate that several people from the state building codes office were not in favor, due to safety concerns and feeling that the issue should be discussed nationally first.

The proposal was listed officially as “non-consensus,” and the idea did not move forward in the code update that took effect in January of this year.
Solla-Yates is glad the discussion will move forward with the passage of the bill.

“No consensus, no change, unless there is clear direction from the legislative body,” he says.

Virginia did not adopt a building code until the early 1970s, which means there are examples of single-staircase buildings in Charlottesville, such as the Altamont Circle apartments in the North Downtown neighborhood. Those were built in 1929, according to city property records, and there are over 20 units.

The stakeholder group is required to deliver their report to the General Assembly by the end of the year.

At least one stakeholder is prepared to make sure the deregulation doesn’t occur.

“The Virginia Fire Prevention Association has grave concern of the consequences of considering a six-story dormitory, apartment, hotel, motel, etc. [with] a single means of egress,” says organization president Gerry Maiatico. “This should not even be considered, let alone sent to a committee for discussion.”

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Buffer zone

Albemarle County seeks to rezone over a third of the land recently purchased to serve as a buffer for the defense intelligence agencies based at Rivanna Station. Image by Albemarle County.

Ten months ago, Albemarle County Supervisors authorized County Executive Jeffrey Richardson to proceed with the purchase of 462 acres around the Rivanna Station military base.

In late March, Richardson filed for a rezoning with the county’s Community Development Department to rezone just over a third of that land for economic development purposes.

“A key element of Rivanna Futures is the establishment of an Intelligence and National Security Innovation Acceleration Campus, a place for public sector organizations, private sector businesses, and academic institutions to work together to co-create solutions to the biggest challenges facing our nation and the world,” reads the executive summary for the request to convert the land to light industrial.

The county hired Line and Grade to make its case to staff and the Board of Supervisors, and the rezoning application builds off a previous study the firm conducted before the deal with developer Wendell Wood closed.

Albemarle paid $58 million for the land to serve as a buffer for the National Ground Intelligence Center, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other related government agencies. Albemarle wants to improve the site’s marketability.

According to the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia, the defense sector is now the second-largest industry in the region, with an annual impact measured in 2023 at $1.2 billion. Albemarle sees development of a portion of the land as an investment in the future.

“Initial estimates suggest that when fully developed, Rivanna Futures could provide nearly 873 new jobs with median incomes of $81,000 a year,” the summary continues.

At this time, the county does not anticipate residential units on the land, according to an impact statement. Just under two acres of the land is outside of the county’s development area.

David Swanson is a Charlottesville-based peace activist who is troubled by Albemarle’s investment in the property. If the military wants protected land, he says, it should pay for it themselves.

“If anybody else wanted to buy land, for a hospital or affordable housing or a park or a nature preserve or a gas station, they’d have to pay for it themselves,” Swanson says. “Why should the county pay for the wealthiest institution there is?”

Albemarle already receives revenue as a result of the purchase. On Wednesday, April 3, county supervisors will appropriate $65,000 in rent from parking lots it purchased that had been owned by Wood.

Next steps for the rezoning application include a community meeting with the Places29-North Community Advisory Committee, before a public hearing with the Planning Commission.

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Housing more

Here are the three locations where the University of Virginia says between 1,000 and 1,500 affordable housing units will be built on land the school or its foundation owns. Photo by University of Virginia.

The University of Virginia’s Great and Good strategic plan helped guide the public institution to recently surpass a $5 billion fundraising goal. One item in the plan calls for the creation of a Good Neighbor program.

“Affordable housing is one of the six issues that was identified by the community as being important to work on with UVA, and, as I understand it, affordable housing was the very top critical issue,” says Pace Lochte, assistant vice president for economic development.

UVA has identified three locations where between 1,000 and 1,500 new units would be built on land the school or its foundation owns. The Piedmont Housing Alliance has been selected to partner on developing the Piedmont housing site off Fontaine Avenue, and an out-of-town group called Preservation of Affordable Housing will develop a site at the corner of 10th and Wertland streets.

“It’s a smaller site, about two acres, but a very strategic site,” Lochte says. “It’s on the border of town and gown and across the street from the UVA Medical Center.”

The third site is at the North Fork Discovery Park, recently rezoned by the Albemarle Board of Supervisors for residential use. A partner has not yet been identified. Timelines for each project depend on financing and the time it will take to get building permits.

“Our best guess based on our partners is early 2026 for moving dirt,” Lochte says.

As of March 1, Lochte says negotiations on agreements between UVA and the partners are still underway, and a lot of due diligence and community engagement still needs to occur.

“We’re really trying to identify how we can be complementary to the ongoing efforts of many in this community who have been doing affordable housing for a long time,” she says.

According to Lochte, financing will likely be dependent on low-income housing tax credits, a mechanism PHA will rely on for other affordable projects on the books, such as 501 Cherry, the Park Street Christian Church Apartments, and redevelopment of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency site on Park Street. Those projects will also be fueled by capital improvement program funds from Charlottesville.

The 10th and Wertland site will be steps away from Westhaven, a Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority site that City Council has agreed in principle to put $15 million towards.

UVA is not planning to put financial resources into the project.

“The University of Virginia is investing no taxpayer dollars, no tuition dollars, and we are leasing under long-term lease at a very low rate land that we otherwise do not have a use for,” says Jim Murray, a member of the Board of Visitors.

The two sites announced so far will be reserved for households who make less than 80 percent of area median income, which is $123,000 for a family of four. Lochte says that could mean nurses at UVA could be eligible to live in those units.

At the end of the lease, the buildings would revert to the University of Virginia’s ownership, according to Tim Rose, the UVA Foundation’s chief executive officer.

“That would be for a future board many decades from now to figure out whether you want to demolish them, use the land for UVA purposes, or fix them up and rent them for market rate,” Murray says. “There’s a lot of things you could do. Turn them into dormitories.”

But first, they have to be built.

Ed. note: A previous version of this story mistakenly attributed a Jim Murray quote to Tim Rose. C-VILLE regrets the error.

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Build-out

This summer, Virginia Supportive Housing is slated to build 80 units on the site of the former Red Carpet Inn. Piedmont Housing Alliance is expected to build another 60. Staff photo.

For many years, aspirational plans adopted by elected officials have called for Route 29 to become more than just a shopping destination or a way for travelers to pass through the city.

“The Hydraulic Small Area Plan seeks to identify opportunities for a more sustainable mixed-use development pattern that departs from the historic, suburban patterns that dominate the area today,” reads a document endorsed in the summer of 2018 by the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.

Since then, property owners have responded by building, or planning to build, new units in close proximity to an eight-lane highway classified by the Virginia Department of Transportation as a “corridor of statewide significance.”

According to Albemarle’s development dashboard, there are 227 apartments under construction in one building at Stonefield, and a site plan for another 112 units approved in another building. Across Route 29, in Charlottesville, the Great Eastern Management Company has filed a site plan for 352 units in a redeveloped Seminole Square Shopping Center.

Less than half a mile to the north are two suburban uses that may soon be converted to a more urban form. Plans have been filed in the City of Charlottesville to redevelop the Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet at 1185 Seminole Trl. as a four-story apartment building with 250 apartments. That project will be accessible from both Route 29 and Hillsdale Drive, and will be one of the last developments reviewed under the city’s old zoning.

RMD Properties has filed a rezoning for 1193 Seminole Trl., just across the line in Albemarle. The original proposal submitted last February sought a range between 200 and 290 units, but the number of places to live was reduced to between 50 and 165.

There’s also another 80 units slated to be built by Virginia Supportive Housing at the site of the former Red Carpet Inn, with the Piedmont Housing Alliance expected to build another 60. VSH is hoping to get that project under construction this summer.

At the same time, concerns about whether Route 29 is a safe area for pedestrians are mounting after a 59-year-old-man was struck and killed on February 20. The driver stopped to cooperate with police, but several people took to social media to express concern about a lack of infrastructure.

Some items are on the way, including a pedestrian bridge that will span Route 29 at Zan Road. The final design is still being put together, but the project is fully funded and should be constructed by the fall of 2025, around the same time the VSH project should be complete.

The eight-lane highway won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Other infrastructure in the area built in the last decade, including a grade-separated intersection at Rio Road, were paid for when a 6.2-mile bypass around Albemarle County’s growth area was canceled soon after former governor Terry McAuliffe took office.

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Automotive zone

This property at 721 Rio Rd. West is within the Rio Road Small Area plan that called for public and private investments to make the area more walkable. Supplied photo.

When Albemarle County supervisors adopted a Small Area Plan in December 2018 for the intersection of Rio Road and Route 29, the idea was to reimagine it for a less car dependent 21st century. 

“We invite our partners to work with us and to think creatively about the future of Rio29, because doing so can create community-wide opportunities and facilitate the creation of a great place,” reads what the county at the time described as an “opportunity plan.”

The idea was to build on the public-sector investment, such as VDOT’s $69 million grade-separation project at Rio and Route 29, as well as Albemarle’s $11.8 million acquisition of property for and construction of the new Northside Library that opened in March 2015.  Six “catalyst” projects were to be built by the county, including a commuter bus stop and a Library Plaza, but none of them ended up in the budget for capital projects. 

Since the Small Area Plan adoption, however, most of the businesses that have opened in the vicinity are automotive in nature. These include a vehicle body shop in the former Goodwill space and conversion of a Hardee’s into a car dealership. Further to the north, an office building on Woodbrook Drive was torn down and replaced with a car wash. 

Now, 4.67 acres of land to the east of the Northside Library has sold for $3.53 million to a company that plans to open an equipment rental facility. 

“The equipment to be rented out to customers from the Property by Carter will include a variety of hydraulic excavators, backhoes, compact track loaders, telehandlers, skid steer loaders, boom lifts, and scissor lifts,” reads a November 8 letter from a law firm seeking confirmation from Albemarle County that the use would be allowed under Highway Commercial zoning. 

The county responded with a “letter of zoning compliance” that the storage of use as described would not be allowed at 721 Rio Rd. West without a rezoning because of the use of heavy equipment. Outdoor storage and display requires a special use permit, and the existing site plan for the old Phillips Supply Building would need to be amended. 

The auto-centric nature of the area has already manifested itself in Northside Library’s need to rent space from its neighbors for additional parking spaces. These include 10 spots in front of 721 Rio Rd. West.

At the public hearing for the Small Area Plan in December 2018, Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum argued that the county had to do more to convince private participation in the vision. He continues to hold that view today. 

“I believe the market has identified the current condition to be best suited toward interchange uses,” Williamson says. “The bottom line is that nothing happens absent a willing property owner.” 

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Up less

The chart above shows 2024’s average Albemarle County property value increases. Image by Albemarle County.

Albemarle County is reporting another increase in average property values for 2024, but its not as high as in the past two years. 

“This year what we’re looking at is a 4.07 percent overall increase to the tax base based on the reassessment,” says Peter Lynch, Albemarle’s assessor. 

Albemarle switched to annual assessments in 2009, which means 15 years of data to sift through. Average values declined the first five years, with a decrease of 2.3 percent in 2013. Percentage changes have been positive ever since, with highs of 8.4 percent in 2022, and 13.46 percent in 2023. This year’s values are on a par with 2019, when 4 percent was at the time a record-setting increase.

“Luckily this year, at least to me, it makes our job a little easier when those increases aren’t so high as they were the last couple of years,” Lynch says. 

Lynch explained to the Board of Supervisors how his staff audits the sales that are based on valid fair-market transactions. Invalid ones do not contribute to the calculations, such as the county’s $58 million purchase of 462 acres around Rivanna Station. 

An example of a valid transaction is the December 19, 2023, purchase of a four-bedroom house on Shiffletts Mill Road in the White Hall District for $1.3 million. That was 26.58 percent above the 2023 assessment. 

That transaction was one of 1,856 valid market sales in 2023, down from a high of 2,389 in 2021. In all, there are 37,419 taxable properties in Albemarle as of the end of the year. 

Assessments were up highest in the 348 parcels of land in the Town of Scottsville, which had a 10.31 percent average increase. The Scottsville Magisterial District is next with the 7,034 parcels having an average increase of 6.98 percent. The average increases were smaller in Rivanna and White Hall, with figures of 2.64 percent and 2.48 percent, respectively. 

Lynch can also break the data down via land classification. The 23,093 parcels designated in the Comprehensive Plan as Urban Residential increased an average of 4.49 percent and the 17,540 classified as “Other Residential up to 20 acres” increased by 4.28 percent. The 1,387 properties listed as Commercial/Industrial went up 3.09 percent. 

Actual numbers will vary depending on unique circumstances. 

“The majority of the properties are going to experience a negative 5 to a positive 5 percent change,” Lynch says. “An additional 32 percent will increase a 5 percent to 15 percent increase.” 

Six percent are in excess of 15 percent. 

But why the increase? Lynch says one possible explanation is that construction of new homes has not kept up with demand. Data from the county’s Community Development reports the issuance of a total of 408 certificates of occupancy in 2015, a number that climbed to 1,143 in 2020 before dropping back to 779 in 2022. 

Anyone who wishes to dispute their assessment must contact the assessor’s office by February 28. Applications to appeal to the Board of Equalization are due April 1. 

The City of Charlottesville will release their property assessment data on Friday, January 26, with notices being mailed out on January 30.