The land use reform currently underway in Charlottesville dates back to January 2017 when the Planning Commission at the time began work on a review of the Comprehensive Plan. I wrote about that work for the next 18 months before I took a break from journalism and out of the light. The Cville Plans Together process began just before the pandemic, a crisis that prompted me to step out of the shadows and back to the grind of documenting meetings.
The first segment on Cville Plans Together in Charlottesville Community Engagement was on August 24, 2020, which was the 31st installment of the program. I’m grateful for the many supporters who have helped pave the way to get me all the way to 614. I’m Sean Tubbs, committing to adding up numbers as long as I can.
On today’s program:
Charlottesville City Council will hold the first of two scheduled work sessions on the Development Code tonight
The city has published a list of changes that have been made since the draft zoning ordinance was advertised for Council’s public hearing
Several dozen people spoke at what may be the final public comment period before Council takes a vote
First shout-out: Magic on the Mall
In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: The holidays are here and the Friends of Charlottesville Downtown and the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau are ready for another season of Magic on the Mall!
Coming up later this weekend there will once again be something for every member of the family!
The Jolly Holly Trolley will be running up and down the Mall from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through December 23
You can take free Selfies with Santa from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 16th
Go on a magical scavenger hunt to find the Elves in Cville by starting at Charlottesville Insider or downloading it online!
Follow the Peppermint Trail where you can find all sorts of treats! Locate the map here!
Downtown businesses will have a festive face off in the Best in Snow window competition, and you can vote for the jolliest!
Material released in advance of Council’s deliberation on draft Development Code
Tonight, Charlottesville City Council will meet at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers for the first of two work sessions where they will continue their deliberations on the Development Code following last week’s public hearing. There is a 19-page packet for the meeting that’s worth reviewing for anyone who will be watching tonight. (download the packet)
“This memo provides a summary of design and discretionary review issues and describes potential amendments to the advertised Development Code, particularly the zoning ordinance portion, that are based on staff’s understanding of consideration items from Council work sessions as well as additional proposed changes identified by staff,” writes James Freas, the city’s Director of Neighborhood Development Services.
Before getting to those changes, Freas first writes about the tension between balancing the dense development called for in the Comprehensive Plan and preservation of the city’s historic character. One major change sought by Council members was the reintroduction of legislative review of projects in the city’s entrance corridors. (read my story from November 18)
“The objective becomes how the zoning and guidelines can enhance the predictability of the outcome while still accomplishing historic preservation,” Freas said.
Freas and his staff are recommending several additions for Council to consider in their deliberations. There are also questions for final consensus.
The Board of Architectural Review may limit story height in the Downtown Mall to within two stories of the “prevailing story height” in the area. In other areas, they may only reduce height by no more than two stories. The BAR would also be allowed to require stepbacks of twenty feet. Up until now, there had been no stepbacks envisioned in the draft zoning ordinance.
The Entrance Corridor Review Board could be given the option of requiring a stepback after five stories, or a discretionary permit could be reviewed for any project over five stories. Or Council could reduce allowable building heights, forcing developers to seek a rezoning. This is a decision point tonight.
Council will be asked if they really want to re-introduce the special use permit process, with staff warning that “special permit review should not politicize the development review process” because it makes the process unpredictable for developers. Staff also notes that public hearings are not required by state law for this process.
Council will be asked to confirm that want to proceed with the Residential Core Neighborhood District (R-NA) and Core Neighborhood Corridors Overlay District. There is a map that outlines the parameters for each.
Staff is proposing a 60-day waiting period for the Development Code to go into effect after adoption to give time to train staff and for Council to adopt the manual for the Affordable Dwelling Unit requirements in the code. The manual will include the amounts for cash-in-lieu payments for developers who want to take that route.
Staff will also be prepared to answer questions about utilities. As we’ll see in a moment, that topic came up during the public hearing.
Dozens speak at City Council public hearing on the Development Code
What impact will testimony from dozens of community members have on the final form of Charlottesville’s new zoning code? On December 5, 2023, Charlottesville City Council held their required public hearing for the generational shift in land use rules.
There were no introductions about the Cville Plans Together initiative, and no descriptions of just what the new Development Code will do. Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook got right to the point before asking City Council Clerk Kyna Thomas to read the name of the first speaker.
“Thank you for all coming,” Snook said to the packed audience in City Council Chambers. “Who’s first?”
“Our speaker is Dr. Dan Miller,” Thomas said.
This is where I admit that I can’t write out the entire public hearing. I also will confess I used a transcript generated by the group that goes by the name CRP-Cville, a transcript you can review here.
A major reason for the new Development Code is to increase the number of places where people can live. Dr. Dan Miller said he feels the Residential-A and Residential-B categories will do just that, but he’s not sure about the third tier known as Residential-C.
“I think what R.C. will do is take people like me who don’t need the extra handout, the extra cash, that this will give me by making my property more valuable than my neighbors,” Miller said. “And I’m asking you guys to not make that decision because I don’t need that help. And I don’t think that picking winners in that way that will be able to sell out their property to develop commercial light style buildings will facilitate equity in housing.”
Tyler Miller is a member of the Tree Commission who spoke as an individual.
“If we’re talking about equity, this meeting should be at 1 p.m. on a Saturday,” Miller said. “You know, I work in tech. I’m going to go home and work some more after I leave here. I was lucky enough to be able to take the time off to be here. But a lot of people can’t.”
Landscape Architect Martha Dunley pointed out a loss of tree canopy means fewer places for hon-humans to live.
“We need more housing for humans and habitat for wildlife,” Dunley said. “Both are essential for our survival.”
Several people expressed concern that more people will come with the need for more government services including infrastructure.
“High-cost infrastructure improvements and repairs require imposing a significant new tax burden on all residents, including renters, causing financial distress and possibly displacement,” said Belmont Resident Sharon Kelley.
“There’s been no clear presentation or shall we say representation regarding this new tax implication to the public,” said Mark Kavit.
“The profits only go to developers while we’re left paying the infrastructure costs or being forced from our homes,” said Deb Jackson. “The goal here is not only to build more, to tax more, but also to increase the market value of your lot as for what can be built there. This will result in higher assessments and higher taxes for all of us.”
So that’s six speakers so far, and the seventh continued in the same vein.
“With increased population, there are several needs for a new sewer treatment plant, as it just happened in Austin at a cost of $379 million,” said Roy Van Doorn. “Besides the question of where do we put such a sewer treatment plant, where’s the city going to get the hundreds of millions of dollars to finance that?”
Those answers are to be found in planning and budget documents of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. The city of Charlottesville is one of two clients of the public utility with the Albemarle County Service Authority, with revenues coming from rates, not taxes.
The main wastewater treatment plant is near the convergence of Moores Creek and the Rivanna River. In 2012, the RWSA completed a $48 million upgrade that increased capacity. In November, the Moore Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant processed an average of just under 9 million gallons a day. You can learn more on the RWSA website. Maybe you can help check to see if the cvillepedia article is up to date?
So that’s seven voices that I’ve classified as “skeptical” in my basic accounting. Let’s skip ahead a little to the first “favorable” speaker of the night. Jeff Levien is the developer of Six Hundred West Main Street, as well as two other apartment complexes. He spoke in favor of no further legislative reviews for big projects.
“I’m here to implore you to not have any text in the ordinance where the BAR, council, or anyone for that matter can put conditions on approval or have another look at projects, and as a result, decrease height or density prescribed by the ordinance,” Levien said.
Immediately afterward and speaker #12 is Michael Caplin of the group Friends of Downtown Cville.. He called for reduction of barriers to allow more people to live downtown.
“Downtown desperately needs more people living there who walk the streets every day and this is possible only if we increase downtown residential capacity,” Caplin said. “We urge you to implement a zoning ordinance that encourages the construction of residential units downtown by minimizing obstacles that prevent delivery of apartments and condos at every single price point.”
The next speaker skewed skeptical. Nancy Summers pointed out the impact on her neighborhood.
“The upzoning of Barracks Road would permit 94 new lots and 500 new housing units to be built between Emmett Street and Rugby Road,” Summers said. “In the nearly 40 years that I have lived next to Barracks Road and attended meetings about the road, no one has ever suggested that the road needed to become more crowded.”
Summers also alluded to a Smart Scale funded project to widen a sidewalk on Barracks Road that would reduce the width of vehicular lanes. There’s a cvillepedia article for that, too, which would use some updating.
Similar skeptical sentiments were stated by speakers #13, #14, #15, and #16. Speaker #17 was former City Councilor and one-time Mayor David Brown who expressed concern about the removal of parking requirements in the draft Development Code. (A majority of City Councilors support elimination of parking requirements, December 3, 2023)
“Even with the goal of better transit and improved walkability and bikeability, most households will want to have at least one car,” Brown said. “Taking kids to soccer practice, grocery shopping, medical appointments, working the night shift. There is no short term path to a better bus system. Some neighborhoods can handle more on-street parking, but some cannot.”
Moving ahead to speaker #20, David Berzonsky supports additional homes especially if many of them can be small cottages in existing backyards. He wants the city to pay for utility connections.
“The city should build the sewage infrastructure necessary so that individual cottages can connect to city water and sewage systems affordably with the goal of having gravity-fed systems wherever possible and so that each project is not a bespoke endeavor,” Berzonsky said.
Elizabeth Stark was next as speaker #21, an enthusiastic supporter of more density but not as much in the areas designated in the Core Residential Neighborhood Overlay District and/or the Residential Core Neighborhood-A District.
“We know that displacement, gentrification and targeting some of our lower income neighborhoods for development has been a key problem historically and I really want to see us make sure that we develop across the city, particularly near the University of Virginia,” Stark said.
Stark urged her support for the two projects near the University of Virginia that Council deferred at their meeting on December 4.
Speaker #24 is a resident from the Meadows neighborhood, which is north of U.S. 29/250 and on the western side of Emmet Street south of Hydraulic Road. At one point, some of the neighborhood properties were to have been designated for protection as the Future Land Use Map depicted them as “Sensitive Communities.”
“I think it would be prudent to have more discussions before you vote on whether or not to include the Meadows neighborhood as a sensitive area,” said Jim Chang.
Today we learned from the map that the Meadows is not being included. I think.
In terms of my notetaking, I put that one in the “Other” column.
Speaker #25 is Ibrahim Khalil, a representative of the UVA Student Council Legislative Affairs Agency, urged Council to turn the dials up on allowable density.
“We ask you to further vote on adding affordable height bonuses and to increase building footprint maximums in R-A, R-B, and R-C, and to keep planning commission recommendations for more intense areas.
The Chair of the city’s Tree Commission weighed in and sounded a cautious tone.
“We appreciate the many tree protection measures the new code contains,” said Jeff Aten. “However, there are additional requirements we believe will help to preserve existing trees and to ensure new trees are planted properly.”
For specifics, I’ll remind you there’s the informal transcript.
Speaker #28 lives on Rugby Avenue and objects to the Residential-C designation out of a concern it will reduce tree canopy and create parking issues.
“The plan may not want people to have cars, but they’re going to have cars,” said Tim Long. “You’re not going to be able to limit people to having no cars. If there’s no off-street parking, residents will still have cars, and they’re going to park them wherever they can find a spot.”
Speaker #29 supports the plan and said a majority of the city supports it.
“It is the result of years of research and public input which has led to the plan that we have today,” said Mark Anderson. “And it is reflective of the needs and wants of the majority of the city, as evidenced by the most recent city council elections and the success of pro-housing candidates.”
The 2023 City Council race was the first one I recall that was not competitive, with three candidates on the ballot for three seats. We’ll hear from City Councilor-elect Natalie Oschrin later. Let’s close out this section with the first section of a poem from Martha Smythe.
“And it’s entitled Build Build Build…
Build, Build, Build
Build anything you want
Build it almost anywhere
Block in a whole neighborhood
They won’t really care
Build it to 10 stories and cut off sun and view.
That doesn’t really matter if it’s what you want to do.
Build it to the sidewalk if one exists at all.
Who cares if our city looks like a parking lot or mall?
No need to offer parking for any home you’ve built,
For driving cars will burden folks with horrid shame and guilt…”
And so on.
That takes up to speaker 30 and at this point, there were 19 skeptics, eight favorables, and three I classify as other. Please keep in mind that there’s no actual score. The only number that matters is three of five Council votes, and none of those 19 skeptics ran for Council.
Let’s take a quick break.
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Many views expressed on Development Code as public hearing continues
There are still several dozen speakers left to go in this accounting of the December 5 public hearing for what’s ended up as the third leg of the Cville Plans Together initiative. Speaker #31 has lived in Charlottesville since 1988 and invoked a literary metaphor.
“‘Charlottesville plans together’ it turns out is an Orwellian slogan that makes one think that the city and contractor doing the work were actually interested in what neighborhoods thought about increased development,” said Andrew Grimshaw. “This is not the case. From the beginning, there was a clear mission to significantly increase density in the city regardless of what neighborhood stakeholders thought.”
The genesis of the Cville Plans Together initiative was a vote by a City Council in February 2019 to move forward with an affordable housing plan, a Comprehensive Plan update, and then a new zoning code. I wrote about it at the time.
A request for proposals was put out soon after and it’s worth recalling the exact language used.
“Rather than relying on the existing power structure to set the narrative and define the discussion, the community engagement strategy must leverage community relationships and expertise to genuinely engage our community,” reads the request for proposals. “The Comprehensive Plan Update/Housing Strategy/Zoning Ordinance Rewrite must be consistent and supportive of these aims, reflecting the values of the community and commitment to equity and inclusion, recognizing the troubling history of segregation, racial covenants, urban renewal and exclusionary zoning, but also celebrating the diversity, history, culture, and visual beauty of our community.”
Only one firm responded to the RFP and Rhodeside & Harwell has overseen the process that got us to here.
The 32nd speaker is a member of the group Strong Towns, which advocates for careful planning and a greater understanding of how cities actually work. Jessica Otey said the current zoning code may not lead to the outcomes proponents are seeking.
“Enticing profiteering developers to jump several levels of density will only end up repeating the distortion effects of our current overly restrictive zoning,” Otey said. “The claim that if we just build more housing, magically cost will come down, or that by increasing density in place X, we will protect place Y, these are precisely the traps that result from mistaking the complex for the complicated. Cities aren’t machines.”
Speaker #33 called for a referendum on the zoning code. Speaker #34 wanted the Meadows neighborhood to be treated like other properties and to not the anti-displacement mechanisms in place there. Speaker #35 lauded the provisions in the zoning code that will allow commercial businesses in neighborhoods.
“Being able to walk to a corner store or cafe in less than 15 minutes is a key that unlocks car-free and car-light living,” said Josh Krahn. “This won’t happen overnight. It’ll take years for neighborhoods like mine to become dense enough to support more than one or two retail shops. But we have to start allowing things to grow organically by trial and error.
Speaker #36 is former City Councilor and former Delegate David Toscano and he called for balance. He also had a legal warning.
“Don’t create too much up zoning. because you won’t be able to go back without drawing a lot of lawsuits,” Toscano said. “In fact, I think there are legal potholes all along the way in this development plan. You should find the most articulate critic who is a lawyer of this plan and let them go through this plan and rip it apart so you can put it back together so it will sustain a challenge in court, because it’s a big deal.”
Speaker #43 is another former City Councilor. Dede Smith pointed out that there is no representation on City Council from her neighborhood of Fry’s Spring. She had a concern over a section of Monte Vista Avenue that is designated as Residential-B.
“It doesn’t even make sense,” Smith said. “If you look at it, and I encourage you to look at it, first block of Monta Vista, it just doesn’t make any sense that it should be up zoned. Sadly, this arbitrary pattern is repeated throughout the southwest side of the tracks. A huge chunk of the city that hasn’t been given any voice by any of you, by any sensitive areas.”
Smith said one solution for her would be to zone all residential property the same.
Speaker #45 is the president of the Rose Hill Neighborhood Association who asked for more properties there to be downzoned become R-NA rather than Residential-B. Flo Taylor had more specific requests as well.
“Since the Core Neighborhood Overlay District uses CX-3 as the base zoning, we see it as only fair that no areas within our neighborhood be zoned for taller than three stories by right,” Taylor said. “We request that the two blocks contained with Rose Hill Drive, Charlton Avenue, Albemarle Street, and Dale Avenue be changed from the proposal NX-5 to NX-3.”
Several people endorsed a letter from an entity called the Coalition for Low-Income Housing, whose website also contains links to a report authored by the Legal Aid Justice Center entitled “Why Building More Market-Rate Housing Will Not Solve Charlottesville’s Housing Crisis.”
Others endorsed materials produced by the group Livable Cville.
After speaker #50, more people who had signed up had either left or opted not to speak. At one point, there was a bit of confusion and there were two people numbered #66.
Speaker #69 makes part of his living as a small developer in the community. Oliver Platts-Mills called on the city to up-zone the city so more people can live here. He’s a member of the Board of Directors at Charlottesville Tomorrow, and the organization’s website lists him as the owner and operator of a real estate firm called 6th & Dice LLC.
“I also have some experience having renovated a number of houses, taken multifamily houses and upgraded them to include more units and acting as a property manager, renting small units in Charlottesville,” said “The demand is incredible.”
The work appears lucrative, too.
Property records indicate that Platts-Mills has sold two properties in Charlottesville in the past year and a half. He had purchased 338 10 ½ Street NW for $90,000 on September 11, 2012 at well below the $178,200 assessment that year. On May 24, 2022, the property sold for $550,000.
On January 17, 2017, Platts-Mills purchased 326 10 1/2 Street NW for $90,000, also below assessment. This property with two units sold for $510,000 on July 28, 2023.
Platts-Mills is the registered agent of at least four other LLCs that own property in what the Future Land Use Map regards as “Sensitive Communities.” Stay tuned to my property transactions to see if those properties are sold in the near future.
Skipping ahead, Attorney Valerie Long was speaker #90, though by this point the number of drop-outs had increased. She said she supports the draft but urged Council to reconsider limiting heights in entrance corridors.
“There are a number of zoning districts that involve parcels that are located adjacent to entrance corridors where the current ordinance allows heights that exceed five stories already,” Long said. “And so by proposing with that proposal, the building heights would actually, the limits would be less.”
We’ve heard from two former City Councilors so far, now let’s hear a future one. Incoming City Councilor Natalie Oschrin was one of three candidates on the ballot for three seats in November.
Former City Councilor Bob Fenwick ran in the Democratic primary in June and appeared to be an opponent of the Development Code but he placed fourth in the five-way. He did not speak at the public hearing.
Oschrin said she ran on a campaign to increase housing and transit.
“The displacement and high prices we see now are a product of the current system, and we are indeed 70 years behind in creating new homes and opportunities,” Oschrin said. “Please vote yes on the new code with provisions to eliminate parking requirements, re-legalize neighborhood scale commercial use, and reconsider the revised height limits along what’s been deemed entrance corridors, which are too restrictive.”
Former City Councilor Kevin Lynch was officially Speaker #102 and I classified his comments in the skeptical column. He said opening up the market to development will not have the outcomes proponents have said.
“What I see in this plan is a house flippers mecca,” Lynch said. “They’re going to come here, and it’s going to be hard to have them turning lots into breaking them up into little McMansions.”
The final speaker is Sam Gulland, who I put in the “favorable” column.
“I’m excited about RA replacing the R1 zoning districts. I think you should be able to build a duplex,” Gulland said. “I think you should be able to, you know, operate a business on your land. I think those are good changes. I’m excited about increased density in some places.”
Gulland was not excited about 245 units next to the property he owns on Caroline Avenue. Earlier this year, he challenged a city ruling before the Board of Zoning Appeals regarding the 0 East High Street, a ruling that is moot now that Council has paid $5.9 million to purchase the property to keep it from being developed.
What will Council decide? That’s a matter for future stories. What will the impact of the Development Code be? It’s my belief this community will need dedicated reporters who will cover the details in a way that allows people to get past the slogans and into the granular. Thanks to your support, I hope to be among their number.
Speaking of numbers, my final score on the public hearing was:
Skeptics - 36
Favorable - 52
Other -6
Reading material:
Charlottesville's plans to boost density could threaten UVa's expansion, says Board of Visitors member, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), December 12, 2023
Due diligence: Albemarle reviews land for defense sector campus, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, December 13, 2023
If #614 had a coda, this would be it:
What will happen? Well, after I hit send on this edition I’m going to get to work on edition #615 which will hopefully come out tomorrow. What will be in it? I’m not sure yet, but in any given day there are all sorts of things to think about. We live in a complex world, but we are creatures who sometimes seek understanding in simple terms. A goal of my journalism is to flesh out the nuance of complex situations where there’s not a lot of community knowledge about how things work.
I’ve spent my career trying to approach the work in this way and am grateful to be able to do so. I’m able to do so thanks to paid subscribers through Substack and thanks to Patreon members. If you’d like to join them, please do consider doing so. If you pay for a Substack subscription, Ting will match your initial subscription.
If you sign up for Ting at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you’ll get:
Free installation
A second month for free
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December 13, 2023: Council to decide remaining items in Charlottesville Development Code at work session tonight