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UVA Foundation moving forward with North Fork residential development

Up to 1,400 units can be built at the North Fork Discovery Park, but this phase anticipates up to 600 new places to live. Image via UVA Foundation.

When the University of Virginia Foundation purchased hundreds of acres of land by the Charlottesville Regional Airport in 1986, the intent at the time was to create a research park to support business and commerce. 

Decades later, the foundation is prepared to turn a section of the 562-acre site into a place where hundreds of people can live, and has issued a request for interested developers to submit their qualifications. Earlier this year, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning allowing for homes to be built there.

“The residential program’s updated Master Plan will create housing for those working in North Fork, adjacent properties, and the broader community,” reads the request for qualifications.

In all, up to 1,400 homes can be built at North Fork, but this particular phase would involve up to 600 units. The RFQ calls for a mixture of market-rate, workforce housing, and affordable units, with the latter defined as being at prices at 80 percent of the area median income. 

“The goal is to offer mixed-income housing opportunities that support live/work/play environments at North Fork, while addressing the area’s housing needs,” says Fred Missel, the foundation’s director of development. 

North Fork is one of three locations where both UVA and the Foundation seek to provide income-restricted housing as part of an initiative called for by a committee UVA President Jim Ryan formed soon after he took office in 2018. 

An exact breakdown of income levels for the 600 units is not required in the RFQ, but the document does say “an optimal number of affordable units guided by best practices for successful mixed-income communities that support community and economic development initiatives.”

Missel says the Foundation hopes to identify a developer who would build something unique to Albemarle. 

“Qualified development teams will be expected to present a vision that incorporates elements of sustainability, resilience, superior community design, economic development, and affordability, tailored to create a unique community that stands out in the area,” Missel says. 

North Fork is in the Hollymead neighborhood as classified by Albemarle County, and the 1,400 units allowed under the recent rezoning are among the 5,221 approved but not yet built, according to the county’s development dashboard. Just over 1,000 units are under review in this area, including an additional 655 at North Pointe. 

While there is no date for construction in the RFQ, UVA’s website on the affordable housing initiative estimates it will happen in the spring of 2027.

Missel says there is no specific date at this time, but the zoning is now in place and the Foundation has made investments to prepare for the additional residents. To support the county’s infrastructure, the Foundation spent $6 million in 2020 to connect Lewis and Clark Drive to Airport Road. Eventually, that roadway will connect with Berkmar Drive, creating a parallel road to U.S. 29. That’s a core principle of the Places29 Master Plan adopted by county supervisors in February 2011. 

UVA has previously selected a nonprofit entity called Preservation of Affordable Housing to develop a two-acre site at 10th and Wertland streets, and that project is listed as going to construction in the summer of 2026. The Piedmont Housing Alliance was selected to develop a 12-acre Fontaine Avenue site, expected to move dirt sometime in 2027.

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Moving in

Three UVA or UVA Foundation properties—the Piedmont community off Fontaine Avenue, 1010 Wertland St., and portions of North Fork UVA discovery park on 29 North—are part of the university’s new affordable housing development initiative. Photo: University of Virginia

From redlining to racial covenants, Charlottesville’s long history of racism and segregation has created the affordable housing crisis the city now faces. Over the years, the city’s largest employer, the University of Virginia, has contributed to the problem. As UVA continues to grow and expand, more and more students have signed leases at apartments and houses around the university, leaving less and less affordable housing available for the city’s low-income residents.

In 2020, UVA President Jim Ryan announced that the school would take proactive measures to address the situation. Over the next decade, UVA plans to support the development of 1,000 to 1,500 units of affordable housing in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. UVA and the UVA Foundation will retain ownership of the land for the affordable housing developments, and partner with third-party developers to design, finance, build, and manage the new units.

Last month, the university announced three prospective sites—all owned by the university or the UVA Foundation—for new affordable housing units: UVA’s Piedmont community off Fontaine Avenue, portions of the North Fork UVA discovery park on Route 29, and the 1010 Wertland St. building at the corner of Wertland and 10th Street. The existing buildings, excluding a historic structure at the Piedmont site, would be replaced with new ones.

Among the key questions facing the project is just how affordable the units will be. City councilor and longtime affordable housing advocate Michael Payne hopes the dwellings will be available at a variety of rental prices—at all area median income levels. “Our biggest need, and the most difficult affordable housing to build, is having units at zero to 30 percent AMI,” he says.

Moriah Wilkins, Skadden Legal Fellow at the Legal Aid Justice Center, says the units need to be affordable specifically for local residents who make below $50,000 a year. “A lot of the low-income housing tax credit units that we have in the community right now accommodate people who have far more than $50,000, so we need to make sure we’re targeting the right demographic,” she explains.

While the units will be available to the entire community, they should be easily accessible to UVA employees, including dining hall staff, custodians, and other service workers, says Public Housing Association of Residents Executive Director Shelby Edwards.

“People who work at UVA should have the ability to live in the city if they’re going to be expected to work in the city,” says Edwards. “Low-income people, specifically Black people, over the past few years have been moving out of Charlottesville.”

According to a report published by the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition in 2020, around 25 percent of all city residents currently do not make enough money to afford to live here.

In addition to one- and two-bedroom units, the new developments should have plenty of units for larger households, as well as elderly and disabled residents, stresses Wilkins. It’s also important that the units offer opportunities for homeownership, giving Black residents a chance to build generational wealth.

Payne also encourages the university to explore adopting a community land trust model, in which a nonprofit organization owns land and leases it to homeowners, maintaining permanent affordability. “They’ll be able to reach deeper AMI levels, potentially open up wealth-building opportunities to more people, and ensure that those units aren’t just affordable for 10, 15, or 20 years, which is often the case in some affordable housing developments,” he says.

Two of the potential affordable housing sites, Piedmont and 1010 Wertland St., currently have residents. After receiving some pushback from the residents, this month the university notified those who are eligible to renew their leases that they could do so through spring 2023, and would not have to move out this spring.

“We are beginning discussions about how to assist current residents as we get a better understanding of the needs,” said Assistant Vice President for Economic Development Pace Lochte in an email.

Affordable housing advocates point to Charlottesville’s troubled history of displacing vulnerable residents. In 1964, the city razed Vinegar Hill, a historically Black neighborhood and business hub. Former residents were forced to move to the city’s first public housing development, Westhaven. In 1969, Charlottesville also expanded City Yard into Page Street, another historically Black neighborhood, but refused to assist residents with finding alternative housing.

UVA should start helping residents of Piedmont and 1010 Wertland St. find new housing now, says Wilkins. It should also give them the option to live in the new affordable units once they are built, and offer them the same rental rate they had before—or a lower one, says Edwards.

“It’s really critical to have a survey of everyone who is living in these units who is facing displacement, [and] for UVA to know what their situations are—is it mainly students, community members, how long they’ve been living in that unit, what’s their current rent,” adds Payne. “[They should] use that information to definitely be 100 percent certain that no one is displaced.”

Piedmont residents have echoed these concerns. Since announcing the proposed sites, UVA has been collecting community feedback through an online (or mail-in) survey, as well as a comment wall on the affordable housing initiative’s website.

“If dozens of families lose their homes simultaneously or within a few months, the Charlottesville housing market cannot absorb all of them. Some families might not be able to find a place that is available, affordable, or that will accept their application (because of income, credit score or legal status),” wrote one commenter.

“We just moved in this summer and our new life is just settled down totally. My kids are just get used to their school,” said another resident. “That would be great for kids to stay in same school. Hope we could live at piedmont for full 4 years.”

The 1010 Wertland St. and North Fork sites have received more positive—albeit less—feedback. Commenters would like to see access to public transportation at the affordable housing sites, as well as green infrastructure, sustainable building practices, and community services.

As the project’s team moves forward with the community engagement process, Wilkins urges UVA representatives to visit low-income neighborhoods and public housing communities in person.

“Not everybody—especially low-income folks—has access to the internet and the same resources…so we really need to go into these communities as much as we can and engage in a way that speaks to them,” she says.

Payne hopes UVA will continue to work with local nonprofits, public housing communities, and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to ensure that the new construction “is meeting the biggest needs in the community” and “won’t have unintended consequences [for] the people around the sites.” He also encourages the school to partner with the city on housing projects that are already in the works, like the redevelopment of South First Street.

UVA is collecting comments from the public until January 31. It plans to issue a Request for Qualifications from developers this spring.

“UVA has been around for so long, and there’s so much undoing of work that needs to happen,” says Edwards. “They started it, and they still have a long way to go.”

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Bellair bears: Ursine invaders trash neighborhood

Bear sightings are not unusual here in the spring, like this one at a cabin near the Shenandoah National Park. It’s their leaving trash all over the place that’s perturbing some Bellair residents. Helga Hiss

By Eileen Abbott

Bradley Kipp recently noticed evidence of a nighttime intruder in the tranquil, wooded Bellair neighborhood west of town where he lives. A resourceful problem solver, Kipp decided to use bungee cords to thwart the thief.

He created makeshift “locks” to tightly seal his trash bins, which were being regularly rummaged through, apparently by a bear that left frequent morning messes all over the yard. “Obviously, a bungee cord won’t stop a hungry bear, but that’s not really the goal” he says. “The goal is to frustrate the bear so he/she simply gives up and moves on. We’ve only had one bear incident since adding the bungee cords.”

Down the street, Kipp’s neighbor, Bev Sidders, shares a similar experience. “I’ve had two incidents this spring of bears coming into my carport, between my cars, turning over my trash cans, and dragging trash all over the yard. I’ve had to move my trash cans into a fenced-in area, and move my cars to get them in and out, so it’s a big inconvenience,” she says.

Some residents believe the bears may have meandered into Bellair after being displaced because of the land clearing going on at nearby Birdwood Golf Course, which is currently undergoing renovations.

“Their habitats have been destroyed,” surmises Sidders.

“We are new residents to the Bellair neighborhood, so this is new to me,” says Kipp. “However, my parents have lived in the neighborhood for four years, and this is the first year they have noticed a bear problem.”

“Construction might impact movements of bears, but mostly it is a food-driven system,” says Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries wildlife biologist David Kocka. Last fall, very few acorns were produced across much of Virginia, he says, and when natural foods are limited, bears search more for food in the spring because there are no leftover acorns.

DGIF Regional Wildlife Manager Jaime Sajecki explains that bears are coming out of dens after months of not eating. Some have given birth and nursed cubs with nothing to eat for months. They lose 30 percent of their body weight, and if there were not good natural food sources in the fall, they can be on the edge of starvation by early spring.

“Bears only come into human-occupied areas because they are desperate for easy foods that don’t take any effort to get,” she says. “They can eat a whole day’s worth of calories from one bag of trash. Bird feeders and garbage cans are the fast food option for bears who would rather spend less calories getting the most calories they can.”

Virginia has never had a bear-caused fatality, she says, and bears are not in neighborhoods because they want to eat people or pets. “It is the buffet of half-eaten sandwiches, pizza crusts, and all the other things we put in the trash that draw them in.”

There is no increase this year in the bear population, which DGIF monitors in five- and 10-year-trends, says Kocka. “Bear populations don’t really change very quickly.”

Game & Inland Fisheries recommends going to its website, which includes information on how to reduce the chances of bears visiting your property. After a few failed attempts to find food around homes, bears will usually leave the area.

“Simple preventative steps make sure that we can all coexist,” says Sajecki.

Bellair resident Betsy Tucker accepts the fact that there is wildlife in her neighborhood, “We live very near the mountains and woods, and it comes with habitat. I didn’t pay to live in a sidewalk community. I don’t mind the bears at all. They’re not grizzlies.”

Deer, however, are another matter, says Tucker’s husband Chip. “The deer are fearless, ubiquitous, and on the increase.”

Sidders agrees. “At least eight live in my yard and have destroyed a contorted filbert tree, dug up or eaten all my tulip plantings, and anything else that I don’t surround with a wire cage,” she says.

Tucker’s neighbor, Dr. Matthew Bowen, says the issue is management, and he’s been vocal about his hopes the UVA Foundation will allow deer hunting to keep the wildlife population in check. The foundation owns , both of which border the Bellair neighborhood, and it stopped bow-hunting when it acquired those properties several years ago.

Many Bellair residents believe this has contributed to deer over-population. “We very much wish that the university would regularly thin the herds by bow-hunting, and make the meat available to local people who need it,” says Tucker.

Bill Cromwell, director of real estate asset management for the UVA Foundation, hasn’t seen any significant damage to either property, “If they did cause significant damage, UVAF would investigate measures to mitigate any issues,” he writes in an email.

His development team meets monthly with the neighborhood associations adjacent to these properties, he adds. “Residents should feel free to contact their HOA representatives to express their concerns.”

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Going down: UVA landmarks face wrecking ball

The Cavalier Inn (right) and Villa Diner (which will reopen at a new location later this month) recently said goodbye to their longtime homes on Emmet Street. Skyclad aerial

By Jonathan Haynes

The Cavalier Inn and Villa Diner bid their Emmet Street locations farewell after graduation weekend last month, as the University of Virginia Foundation prepares to raze their buildings later in the summer to renovate the Ivy Corridor at the Emmet Street/Ivy Road intersection.

The Cavalier Inn, built in 1965 and acquired by the foundation in 1998, accommodated a diverse range of people, including visitors coming to tour UVA, attend graduations or return for alumni weekends. It also lodged football players during summer training and hosted local organizations like the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild.

Stephanie Harder, a former UVA psychology student, worked the front desk in 2009. “It felt kind of like a family,” she says. “A bunch of different people, but everyone got along great.”

The inn was there for dark times, as well. In October 2009, it housed a hotline center after 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington disappeared from the nearby John Paul Jones Arena. “It was in my last week or two,” Harder said. “There was a lot of commotion.”

The inn will not be relocated. However, UVA President Teresa Sullivan’s Hospitality Task Force has recommended a replacement to put up guests and host conferences.

The Villa Diner, which will reopen at 1250 N. Emmet St. on June 18, has made a similar impact. The restaurant is known for its breakfast fare and community atmosphere, which co-owner Jennifer Beachley attributes to the long-term commitment of its employees. “We have staff members who have worked with us for 10, 12 years…so we [are] a very well-oiled machine,” she says.

The Villa has cultivated a loyal clientele since Beachley and her husband, Ken, purchased it in 2005. “I’ve seen people bring their babies in and watched them grow up,” Beachley says. “I’ve been to the funerals of some of my customers.”

The Villa’s close proximity to UVA Grounds helped draw students and faculty. Notably, UVA athletic teams frequented the restaurant during summer training, and members of the university guides, who lead campus tours, came twice a year for their initiation ceremonies, when they performed skits and sang songs. Beachley is confident the Villa will enjoy comparable success in its new location, a mile up the road in the former home of the Royal Indian Restaurant.

“We’re well aware that our old location provided us some great opportunity with sporting events and people walking from the Corner,” she says. “But we’re really excited about being close to our [customer-base]. …I’ve had some people say ‘you’re closer to me now.’ ”

Though sad the foundation didn’t renew her lease, she says she’s pleased with the university’s plan to convert the lot into a green space. “I’ve been telling people that if I can’t be there,” she says, “then I’d love to have green space.”

The UVA Board of Visitors started planning the renovations in 2015. The foundation contracted DumontJanks, a Boston-based architectural consulting firm, to provide strategic landscaping plans in 2016. Last year, the foundation decided against renewing some of its Emmet Street businesses in order to begin the project.

The renovation plan aims to unite Central Grounds with the rest of the UVA campus, bolster the local drainage system, place utilities underground, make way for green space and reduce traffic congestion in the area.

Buildings along the 14.5-acre stretch, including the soon-to-be demolished inn and diner, have been cordoned off with green safety fencing in the meantime.

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Bellair Bambis: Resident blames UVA for increased deer population

Matt Bowen believes this deer was dying of disease, and blames the UVA Foundation for stopping a deer culling program on nearby properties. Courtesy Matt Bowen

Matt Bowen came upon a juvenile buck “in its last throes” early Sunday morning, September 4, on Canterbury Road in his Bellair neighborhood. He contacted Albemarle County Animal Control to humanely dispatch it, and the next day, found the deer at the same spot, albeit with a bullet hole in its neck.

Bowen, a doctor, examined the beast and found no signs of trauma (aside from the bullet hole). “It was obviously gripped by a disease,” he says.

The incident reignited his ire with the UVA Foundation, a nonprofit that administers the university’s real estate holdings and obtained the 199-acre Foxhaven Farm in 2012. The entrance to the farm is at the back end of Bellair, and for years, its previous owners, Jane and Henderson Heywood, had used bowhunters to keep the deer population in check. That ceased when UVA Foundation took over the property.

“I do know there are a heck of a lot more deer,” says Bowen.

Bellair, like many high-end subdivisions on the west side of town, such as Farmington, Ednam Forest and Inglecress, allows residents to hire bowhunters to cull deer, an option even the City of Charlottesville is considering to combat an out-of-control population.

Tony Shifflett, who owns Rangeland Archery in Ruckersville and Urban Deer Management, started bowhunting in Foxhaven in 1994, when Jane Heywood contacted him. After UVA Foundation acquired the property, “They ran it through the board and decided not to allow any hunting and hiking on the property,” he says.

The foundation also owns neighboring Birdwood Golf Course, which used to have its own hunters to contain the deer, but UVA ceased that about the same time as Foxhaven, according to Shifflett.

Bill Cromwell is director of real estate asset management for the UVA Foundation, and he confirms that there has been no deer hunting at Foxhaven since UVA obtained the property in May 2012.

“Typically, such programs are undertaken on farms when deer populations are causing damage to property or crops,” he writes in an e-mail. “Foxhaven Farm is contiguous to the Birdwood Golf Course and other vacant, forested property owned by the foundation. We have not seen any damage to these properties as a result of deer populations. Should such a condition arise, the foundation would work with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to mitigate damages from deer or any other wildlife.”

Bellair “has a serious problem” that is “absolutely” connected to the decision to stop bowhunting on the UVA properties, making them a haven for deer, says Shifflett. He has clients in Bellair, where he takes out about 40 deer a year, as well as in a half dozen other subdivisions. The deer meat is donated to Hunters for the Hungry.

“I have seen deer with ribs showing and growths on them,” he says. “I can’t say it’s wasting because I find no dead deer”—except for the ones he routinely finds on the U.S. 29 bypass, to which Bellair backs up.

“The biggest fear homeowners have is ticks,” he says. “I personally know seven or eight people who have Lyme disease.”

Not everyone in Bellair is perturbed by the deer. Ralph Feil is secretary/treasurer of the Bellair Owners Association, and says he “has no clue” about whether deer are a problem in the neighborhood, although he also acknowledges that he lives in one of the first houses in the ’hood, which stretches more than a mile, and rarely visits the nether regions on the Foxhaven end.

“We’ve always had a policy to allow individual property owners to have bowhunters on their property to shoot deer,” he says. “We’ve never done it as an association.”

Bonnie Wood is president of the homeowners association, and she says the issue of bowhunting usually comes up at the annual meeting, but it’s not a major concern.

What is a major concern: “Somebody reported a rabid skunk the other day,” she says. “A neighbor was able to take it down with an air gun.” Animal control confirmed the skunk was rabid, she says.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological condition affecting deer, elk and moose—but not humans. It’s a big concern for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Lee Walker with the DGIF says an outbreak was found in the northwest corner of the state in 2009. “We inherited it from West Virginia,” he says.

And while he’s not aware of any outbreaks in the Albemarle area, he describes stricken deer: “They look sickly. They basically starve to death. They deteriorate to the point they collapse and die.”

Hemorrhagic disease is a more common deer disorder caused by black fly bites, he says, and outbreaks occur almost every year in the southeastern United States.

Whether the deer Bowen found had either of those is unknown. When he found its carcass the next day, he disposed of it, and he questions police leaving it on the side of the road.

That’s standard procedure, according to Lieutenant Todd Hopwood with the Albemarle County Police Department. “If an injured deer is in the roadway or a hazard, we do euthanize them with a shot to the head,” he says. “We notify VDOT if it’s on a state-maintained road.” If it’s a private road, it’s up to the property owner to dispose of the remains. Bellair is a county road.

Bowen says he routinely sees a dozen deer in Bellair yards, overgrazing the fauna. Between the risk of disease and the deer “lollygagging at the bypass,” putting drivers at risk, he says, “Deer are a major public hazard.”