June 26, 2025: Virginia Court of Appeals reinstates “missing middle” zoning in Arlington

Plus: The Charlottesville Board of Zoning Appeals meets today to consider allowing a front-yard fence taller than four feet

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” At least, that’s the first thing that comes to mind when I learned that the last of the Plantagenet monarchs of England was crowned on June 26, 1483. Richard III’s reign would end two years later at the Battle of Bosworth Field. History is filled with conflict, conflict that gets memorialized in song, literature, and the occasional play.

Charlottesville Community Engagement is none of those things but hopefully the stories are of use to people who read them. I’m Sean Tubbs, still wondering how I retain some knowledge but struggle to learn other types of things.

In today’s installment:

• The Virginia Courts of Appeals has reinstated Arlington County’s “missing middle” zoning but further legal review will continue

• Charlottesville’s Board of Zoning Appeals meets today to consider a variance allowing for a front yard fence taller than four feet

• A petition has been filed to urge Kroger to keep a store open in Charlottesville

• Two commercial kitchens in the area get funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia

• Another look at procurement activity in Charlottesville

• The Manning Institute of Biotechnology gets a pair of anonymous $25 million donations

• With four days left before the beginning of the fiscal year, the City of Lynchburg has not yet adopted a budget or established consensus on a real property tax rate

First shout-out: Camp Albemarle

Today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for over sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”

Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Are you looking to escape and reconnect with nature? Consider holding an event where the natural beauty of the grounds will provide a venue to suit your needs. Visit their website to view the gallery and learn more!

Virginia Court of Appeals reinstates “missing middle” housing in Arlington County

The next step in a lawsuit against Charlottesville’s new development code will be on Monday morning at 10 a.m. when a hearing will be held in Charlottesville Circuit Court over a motion filed by the plaintiffs for default.

Meanwhile, this week the Virginia Court of Appeals has reinstated Arlington County’s “missing middle” zoning ordinance which goes by the technical name of “Expanded Housing Options.” The three judge panel reversed a circuit court decision that declared the program void, but Arlington Now reports that their action sends the matter back to the lower court.

Last September, retired Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Schell ruled that the EHO program was invalid and ordered that no more permits be granted. In October he issued a written opinion in Nordgren v. Arlington that explained further the procedural concerns. (read that ruling)

In between the oral and written opinion, a firm called Wilson Ventures tried to be added to the case because they had received permits to build multi-family units under the EHO program. Some of these were nearly completed and waiting for inspection when Judge Schell made his ruling.

The cover of the six page ruling as posted to the Arlington County website. Take a look!

The appeals court ruling notes that Judge Schell did not believe the arguments of Wilson Venture were valid. In his written opinion, he ruled in a stay order on November 14 that any entity that had received an EHO permit had to abide by certain rules.

“The stay order required each permit holder to record in the land records a notice informing potential purchasers that the pending appeal may void their zoning rights and eliminate their right to live in the property,” reads page 3 of the Courts of Appeals ruling.

The legal issue at hand is whether Wilson Ventures filed their appeal in an appropriate manner. The three judges said they did, and the ruling moves the matter back to the circuit court so that other parties may join the case.

Arlington County updated its EHO website after the ruling.

“The County is considering its next steps, including how this impacts previous applicants for EHO permits, new applications, and housing options in Arlington County going forward,” reads the statement. “Additional information will be shared as it becomes available.”

Charlottesville Board of Zoning Appeals meets today

The lawsuit against Charlottesville’s new Development Code was filed in January 2024 about a month before the rules went into effect. Staff in the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services have continued to transition to the new rules and plan a first set of revisions this year.

The new code includes provisions that the Board of Zoning Appeals will step in to settle disputes.

They’ll do so tonight in a meeting at CitySpace that begins at 4 p.m. The property owner of 2603 Jefferson Park Avenue wants to build a taller fence than allowed under the new code.

“In the former zoning ordinance, there were no restrictions to where a fence could be located or how tall it could be as long as it didn’t restrict sight lines for vehicular traffic,” reads the staff report.

The new code restricts fence height in a front yard to no more than four feet.

Neither the owners of 2603 Jefferson Park Avenue nor the fence construction company they hired were aware of the new ordinance. A notice of violation was given on April 24, 2025 and the property owner said she needed the higher fence to help block noise which aggravates her post-traumatic stress disorder.

The situation could be remedied in one of two ways. An application could be filed for a special exception which would go through the Planning Commission and the City Council, or a variance could be filed. The BZA takes up the latter.

However, staff claims that the fence does block sight lines.

Learn more in the staff report (Credit: City of Charlottesville)

Union launches petition to keep Charlottesville’s third Kroger store open

This week, Charlottesville learned that the Kroger store at 1904 Emmet Street will close on August 22, 2025.

Some of the people who work there are seeking to reverse the decision and have launched a petition.

“As the union of Kroger workers in Charlottesville, we won’t take this sitting down,” reads a petition making the rounds on the UFCW Local 400 website.

UFCW Local 400 is also arranging petition campaigns in: Abingdon, Virginia; Kingsport, Tennessee; and Gassaway, West Virginia.

“Our communities rely on Kroger to provide fresh groceries and good union jobs,” reads further information on the website. ”If these stores close, our customers will have fewer choices of where to shop and what to buy.”

The petition claims that the moves will favor investors and argues that the closure is the result of a failed merger with rival grocery chain Albertson’s. That deal was announced in October 2022 but faced legal challenges from the Federal Trade Commission as well some state-based legal action.

Kroger has two other stories in the community with one in the Barracks Road Shopping Center and the other in the Rio Hill Shopping Center.

Governor Youngkin announces grant funding for two commercial kitchens

One of the ways that Governor Glenn Youngkin is celebrating Virginia Agricultural Week is to announce the latest recipients of the Commonwealth’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) program.

“Infrastructure projects such as these provide an opportunity for state and local governments to use agriculture to address critical needs in local food systems and support Virginia’s largest private industry, agriculture,” Youngkin said in an information release sent out at 1:18 p.m. today.

Two commercial kitchen projects in the Charlottesville were among the dozen recipients.

Fluvanna County has been awarded $7,374 to purchase equipment for the one run by the local government.

“These upgrades will remove key operational barriers, expand the kitchen’s user base, and generate long-term economic impact by supporting the growth of small food-based businesses in Fluvanna County,” reads the release.

Fluvanna’s commercial kitchen is located at 5725 James Madison Highway in Fork Union, VA. To learn more or make a reservation, visit the county’s website.

The City of Charlottesville received $50,000 for the Beacon commercial kitchen run by the New Hill Development Corporation.

“Grant funds will be used to purchase equipment such as juicers, labelers, printers, baggers, food processors, tray sealers, cappers, fillers, shrink wrappers and dehydrators for this shared-use commercial kitchen,” reads the release.

To learn more about Beacon, visit their website.

Second shout-out: Music Resource Center invites you to Rock the Block this Saturday

This Saturday in Tonsler Park, the Music Resource Center will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a block party from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The public is invited to enjoy live music, food from Knox Catering, and learn about community resources. There will also be announcement about the Music Resource Center’s new location on Cherry Avenue.

The musical acts are 100 Proof, Lee Bangah, and Pocket Change. For more information, visit their page on Facebook.

Procurement update: Charlottesville hires three firms to manage right of way negotiations

For the most part, Charlottesville manages its own transportation projects and has done so since the mid-2000’s.

“Typical projects administered by the City include right of way acquisition for the construction of sidewalks, trails, turn lanes, shoulders, additional travel lanes, adjustments to traffic signals, realignment of curves, drainage improvements, new roadway alignments and utility improvements,” reads a request for proposals for engineering services that went out in 2024.

On June 20, the city awarded contracts to three firms to assist with acquiring right of way for transportation projects. They are:

• ERM & Associates of Warrenton

• KDR Real Estate Services of Richmond

• Timmons Group of Richmond

On June 10, the city opened bids on a proposal to produce pedestrian improvements at the intersection of Monticello and 2nd Street north of the Ix Art Park. The sole bid from Curtis Contracting was $1,534,131.32 and that is over the project budget.

Other recent awards include:

• On June 12, the city awarded a contract to Winsuply of Charlottesville to install a leak detection system for City Hall. The winning vendor supplied the only proposal at a cost of $21,563.12. (learn more)

• On June 18, the city awarded a contract to CentiMark / Questmark Flooring to provide floors at offices at Charlottesville High School. They submitted the lowest bid of $47,085. Three other vendors also responded with the highest at $129,887.58. (learn more)

There are currently four open bids:

• The city seeks firms to provide landscaping at the nearly six acre Charlottesville Area Transit headquarters on Avon Street Extended. Bids are due on July 2, 2025. A previous request resulted in one solicitation but the vendor did not include information about how a living wage would be provided. (learn more)

• The city seeks firms to provide fire hydrants and other related products. These are due on July 8, 2025. (learn more)

• There’s also a request for proposals for a firm to provide exterior maintenance on the McIntire Historical Building to fix many issues. These are due on July 11, 2025. (learn more)

• There’s also a request for firms to replace an irrigation system at the McIntire Golf Course. These are due on July 18, 2025. (learn more)

The details of the work being sought at the McIntire building (Credit: City of Charlottesville)

Manning Institute of Biotechnology receives another $50 million

Construction is underway of the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology at the University, a project in which the namesakes contributed $100 million a $350 million construction costs.

Today the University of Virginia Health System announced the receipt of two $25 million anonymous gifts.

“These extraordinary gifts will support the Manning Institute’s research and aid in developing new treatments for hard-to-treat or incurable diseases, which will change lives across the Commonwealth and beyond,” said UVA President Jim Ryan in an information release sent out at 8:46 a.m. this morning.

The two gifts also put UVA Health over the top in its goal to raise $1 billion through the overall Honor the Future campaign.

“UVA Health’s mission is to transform health and inspire hope, and these donations will enable us to be at the forefront of that transformative work for the health system,” said Mark Esser, the first director of the Manning Institute and its chief scientific office.

Esser addressed the Health System Board earlier this month.

Lynchburg City Council has yet to set tax rate

Readers may not know that I produce a companion newsletter called Fifth District Community Engagement which seeks to provide a very broad overview of what is happening at government meetings in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District.

Except on very rare occasions, I am not reporting directly from meetings. I would like to change that over time because I think residents of one community benefit from having the option to know what’s happening across the entire district.

With only a handful of days to go before the beginning of the next fiscal year, Lynchburg City Council has yet to settle on a real property tax rate or a personal property tax rate.

City Council was to have had a public hearing on Monday on a proposal to set the real property tax rate at $1.025 per $100 of assessed value. However, the special meeting was adjourned when it was clear there were not four votes to proceed.

Council met the next day, and Rachel Tillapaugh reports for WSET that a vote failed that would have set the rate at $0.767 per $100. Read her article for information on other options that are available. For more information, here’s an account from WDBJ-7.

Another special meeting will be held on Monday at 10 a.m. An agenda has not been published and the City of Lynchburg’s budget engagement page has not been updated for some time.

To learn more, here’s a story from WSLS courtesy of YouTube:

Reading material:

• ResetUVA, Wahoos4UVA express polar views on University leadership, Grace Little, Cavalier Daily, June 17, 2025

• ACPD looks to expand school zone speed camera program, Sarah Allen, CBS19 News, June 25, 2025

• New Albemarle County Courthouse Opens, Jenette Hastings, WVIR 29News, June 25, 2025

• Crash damaged power lines, Dominion cut power to part of Fluvanna County, CBS19 News, June 25, 2025

• Supervisors get first look at $47 million water line plan for Bremo, Heather Michon, Fluvanna Review, June 26, 2025

#886 wasn’t supposed to happen today

Summer’s rough. I have much less enthusiasm for the world because the heat fills me dread.

I’ve also worked a lot these five years and there are days I would like to take off. Today was going to be one of those days, but I felt guilty even thinking about that because people pay me to do this work. And I like doing the work!

But, I realized I had not followed up with a story on today’s BZA meeting which will gavel in in less than an hour. I wanted to write that up, and then I wanted to get the Arlington story out. There were a lot of other loose ends I wanted to get out. So here we are.

There will not a newsletter tomorrow. After this I will switch over to getting ready to produce the audio version, which will likely mean writing up a script for the podcast that will be in the final Charlottesville Community Engagement of Fiscal Year 2025!

But who knows? Now I have to go run the errands I need to do.

So I leave you a new Primus track. Well, a live version of an old one, invigorated by the new drummer, John Hoffman. I may have left his demo tape at the end of one of these. I can hear his enthusiasm in every beat, and I look forward to the band’s future.