May 27, 2025: Board of Zoning Appeals upholds administrative modification for 24 units at 2030 Barracks Road
Plus: Andrea Copeland is the new CEO of the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce
Do you remember Memorial Day? What about last Tuesday? What did you do a month ago? Where will you be in a month? These questions have no bearing on anything else that you will read in this May 27, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement but there are benefits from being able to answer any questions about your timeline. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’m about to start writing now.
In today’s installment:
Andrea Copeland is named as the new CEO of the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce
There’s a public hearing before Charlottesville City Council on June 2 for rate increases for water, sewer, and natural gas
Charlottesville’s Board of Zoning Appeals upholds an administrative modification for a 24 unit apartment complex at 2030 Barracks Road
The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority reviews recent trends and is warned about the dangers of exploding lithium batteries
First shout-out: Plant Virginia Natives
Spring is here and there’s still time to plan for upgrades to your outdoors. You can take some time to get ready for spring! Check out Plant Virginia Natives!
Plant Virginia Natives is part of a partnership with ten regional campaigns for ten different ecosystems across Virginia, from the Northern Piedmont to the Eastern Shore. Take a look at the full map below for the campaign for native species where you are in the Commonwealth. For the Charlottesville area, download a free copy of the handbook: Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Gardens.
Plant Northern Piedmont Natives is for anyone who works with native plants, whether you are a property owner, private consultant, landscape designer, nursery operator, conservation group, or local government.
Two housekeeping items before we start!
The Free Enterprise Forum is holding a candidate forum Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. for the three candidates seeking two Democratic nominations for the Charlottesville City Council race. This will take place at the Hillsdale Conference Center at 550 Hillsdale Drive. I am co-moderating along with Neil Williamson.
The Nelson County Planning Commission had been listed as having a meeting starting at 7 p.m. in the General District Courtroom, but the meeting has been canceled.
Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce names Andrea Copeland as new CEO
A longtime employee of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce is the organization’s new chief executive officer effective immediately.
“The Charlottesville community is special to me,” said Andrea Copeland in an information release. “It is a region full of resilience, innovation, and opportunity. I’m looking forward to working in partnership with our board, staff, members, and community stakeholders to expand our Chamber’s impact through membership, advocacy and economic growth.”
Copeland has been serving as interim CEO.
The Chamber’s last permanent CEO, Natalie Masri, stepped down in December 2023 after replacing Elizabeth Cromwell. A search firm for a replacement was hired last August.
“Andrea has deep connectivity with our membership,” said Jonathan Chasen, chair of the Chamber’s Board of Directors. “As Interim CEO, she has demonstrated a unique blend of strategic insight, collaborative spirit, and a profound understanding of our region’s needs.”
Copeland joined the Chamber in 2012 and has served as director of Leadership Charlottesville, director of Member Education Services, and Chief Operating Officer. She has also served for many years as the host of the Grand Illumination on the Downtown Mall.
Public notice: Public hearing in Charlottesville on June 2 for utility rate increases
The City of Charlottesville is proposing higher rates for water, sewer, and natural gas provided to its customers. There will be a public hearing on June 2 before the Charlottesville City Council and the new rates were required to be published in the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
There is a summer rate and a winter rate for water. The current rate is $88.83 per 1,000 cubic feet. The proposal is to increase that effective July 1 to $100.52 per 1,000 cubic feet, a 13.16 percent increase.
The current winter rate is $68.33 per $1,000 cubic feet. The proposal is to increase that to $77.33. That’s a 13.17 percent increase.
There is also a proposed increase to the monthly service charge for all users. These are tiered based on the diameter of the water intake. The charge for a ⅝ inch meter will increase from $7.50 a month to $10.00 a month. All service charges are increasing 33 percent. The charge for a 14 inch meter will increase from $2,456.25 a month to $3,275 a month.
The increase reflects higher rates to be charged by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Their public hearing for rates was held today and details will be in a future newsletter.
Charlottesville’s rates for wastewater service are not increasing as much. The current charge is $92.55 per 1,000 cubic feet and the proposal is to increase that to $95.29, a 2.96 percent increase. The same connection frees apply.
Natural gas rates are also slated to increase. Usage is charged on a tired basis. The current rate for the first 3,000 cubic feet is $9.78 and the proposal is to increase that to $12.41. That’s a 26.84 percent increase. Rates for higher tiers are also increasing.
I’ll have full details in the next Week Ahead scheduled to be published on on June 1.
Mawyer: Solid waste center receiving more tonnage
The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority was created in 1990 to oversee the Ivy Landfill, a facility that has since been closed and converted into a place where people can drop off all manner of items for disposal. The Board of Directors met today and got some highlights from Executive Director Bill Mawyer.
“At the Ivy Solid Waste and Recycling Center we continue to move along with about 220 tons per day which is about 50 percent more than we were receiving four years ago and six times more than we received back in 2018,” Mawyer said.
That’s when work was completed on a transfer station giving Albemarle and Charlottesville residents a more local place to drop off unwanted items.
Mawyer showed a video of a tractor at the site running over a lithium battery causing an explosion and a small fire. That’s happened twice in the past month and the RSWA will implement a program to minimize the risk.
“It’s hard when we get all these bags of trash to go through and know whether people have put lithium batteries in there,” Mawyer said. “So we're going to first try to offer them an option of a disposal site and see how that translates into budget and operational issues.”
Whatever program is developed will be handled by Phil McKalips, the RSWA’s solid waste manager.
“It is a big problem throughout Virginia and across the nation,” McKalips said.”Our hauling company is losing about two trailers a month fired, presumably from lithium batteries. But the day we had the trailer catch fire, there was a fire at the landfill in Spotsylvania County. A week before that, there had been one at Norfolk.”
There was also information about recent special collection days.
Mawyer said almost 400 cars came through an amnesty day for electronic waste products and over 1,400 people came through during a two-day hazardous household waste day.
“We received about 27,000 pounds of furniture and mattresses on that one day event and about 16,000 pounds of appliances on its one day event,” Mawyer said. “And 183 vehicles brought us tires.”
The RSWA Board of Directors also approved a $10.5 million budget for FY2026.
Second-shout out: Design Develop
In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out, architectural firm Design Develop is offering a new service aimed at the development community that the rest of us might want to know about , too — 3D point cloud scanning! This technique uses specialized equipment, such as 3D scanner systems, to gather a large amount of data points that represent the surface of the scanned object or scene. This really comes in handy when working with historic structures, as the firm knows from its experience in Baltimore and Charlottesville. Read their blog post for more information!
The applications of 3D point cloud scanning are extensive and cover various fields, including architecture, construction, cultural heritage preservation, virtual reality, industrial design, manufacturing, and more. These applications require accurate 3D spatial information, and Design Develop’s workflow provides precise and comprehensive results, all while being more cost-effective than traditional methods.
Design Develop has expertise in this workflow for their own needs and now has a dedicated team offering this service in the Charlottesville and Albemarle Area. If you're involved in the real estate, design, or construction industry, contact them for more information or a free quote.
Visit their website for an introductory video that captures the 3D point cloud scanning of the Downtown Transit Center and a booklet that will explain more!
Board of Zoning Appeals upholds administrative modification for 24 units at 2030 Barracks Road
Charlottesville’s new zoning code intentionally reduces the role that elected and appointed bodies play in deciding whether multifamily buildings can be built on land that formerly could only contain one residential unit.
However, there are still government venues where neighbors can voice their objections.
“We are hearing an administrative modification today,” said zoning administrator Read Brodhead. “Administrative modification is something new in our development code.”
Charlottesville is not flat which means there are times when a developer needs to make adjustments to fit buildings into parameters allowed by the city. Under the old code these were known as variances, but now they are known as administrative modifications. The zoning administrator can grant permission for any physical dimension standards in the code to be increased or decreased by up to 15 percent.
“How much building coverage can be taken up on a site, entrances into the building, how farther spaced apart,” Brodhead said. “And in this case, it is addressing the build-to width of the building.”
The “build-to” width is defined in the code as "the cumulative building width that occupies the build-to zone relative to the width of the site at the street lot line” and the purpose is “"to facilitate the creation of a convenient, attractive, and harmonious community by regulating the placement of buildings along the public realm so that buildings frame the public realm with a consistent pattern of development."
In June 2024, Greenshire Holdings LLC purchased undeveloped land at 2030 Barracks Road for $581,500. The 0.83 acre parcel is zoned Residential-B which allows 12 units as long as half of them meet the city’s affordability parameters.
The company filed a major development plan with the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services that anticipates subdividing the lot into two, allowing for two 12-unit buildings to be built. Prior to the adoption of the new Development Code, this would have required a rezoning and most likely a special use permit.
The Planning Commission and the City Council still have to review and approve special exceptions and this project is seeking to waive a requirement that the buildings face the street.
The Planning Commission will take that up on June 10 but there is no public hearing.
That’s a process separate from the administrative modification requested for the build-to width. Under Virginia Code, the city must notify adjacent property owners if such a request is pending. If any objections are received, the decision on granting the administrative modification goes to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
“I will note I sent five letters out to adjacent property owners and got four objections,” Brodhead said.
Three of the property owners attended the BZA meeting and had the opportunity to make a public comment. However, the BZA must consider three criteria in their determination. Does the standard impose a hardship on the developer? Do other properties share the hardship? Would the modification affect other properties?
In the case of 2030 Barracks Road, one of the two buildings would only take up 61.1 percent of the frontage rather than the 65 percent required by the code.
Brodhead said he felt the modification was justified because all three criteria had been met.
As a public hearing, applicants have the opportunity to make their case.
“This is a request to build a smaller building,” said Kelsey Schlein of Shimp Engineering. “We're basically requesting a building reduction of one and a half feet effectively.”
Without the modification the project would have less green space, would require a taller retaining wall, and there would be slightly less sidewalk.
David Marold of Greenshire Holdings said his intention is to build more housing so more people can live within the city. He originally came to Charlottesville to work for the The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School.
“One of the unique things about working at the JAG school is that I found out of over a hundred employees here, these are military officers, these are high level GS employees,” Marold said. “There were only about six that lived in the city.”
Yates Noble expressed broad opposition to the level of density envisioned close to a busy intersection.
“Twenty-four units with a minimum of 50 residents plus their guests and deliveries and emergency vehicles brings traffic to a standstill when crossing Barracks Road to enter this road,” Noble said.
Noble also objected to the amount of trees that will be cut down. Another pending permit is one to remove 67 trees from the property.
Katie Kishore said the project is asking for too many special exceptions and modifications.
“The developer is requesting a change of location of the driveway, a change of location of the city's crosswalk, a special exception to build on the slopes, a special exception to omit front entry features, a special exception to eliminate tree canopy, and most importantly today, a build to width modification,” Kishore said. “This hardship has been created by the developer because he wants to split the two lots in order to increase profit.”
When the decision was before the BZA, Keller noted the group does not have much latitude.
“We have a very limited purview which doesn't extend to traffic or environmental considerations,” Keller said. “We're all getting our heads around this code and the new opportunities that are available under it.”
Keller said she understood the objections, but noted that Council made the decision to allow a denser city.
“It's something that the entire community needs to understand,” Keller said. “The development rights vested in their properties have changed along with those of their neighbors and within their surroundings. It's something we all have to get used to, particularly when we're in neighborhoods that were once R-1 and now they're Residential-B.”
The BZA’s vote was unanimous.
Reading material:
Time running out to submit input for Fluvanna Comprehensive Plan update, CBS19 News, May 26, 2025
A contested race in Albemarle's Samuel Miller District for the first time in 8 years, Emily Hemphill, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), May 27, 2025
The end of #870
This is going to be an odd week. I’ll be traveling and want to take some time off to try to figure out the business and to do some soul-searching about the future. However, there are stories to write as well. A reality of being a one-person operation is that there is no paid vacation, no benefits, and nothing but the glory of getting to do the work of informing thousands of people about items they did not know before.
The world is better, though, when King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is doing live shows.
There was an unfortunate spelling of Andrea Copeland’s name in the sub-headline when it was first published. I regret the error!