May 31, 2024: Albemarle County working on public-private partnership to complete long-awaited roadway in Crozet
A single-story edition of the newsletter on an important topic: How do things get built to support growth?
It is the final day of May, a month whose name could be considered a beacon of politeness. It turns out there’s a connection to the Roman goddess Maia, or possibly the Latin word maiores which means elders. Either way, it is May 31 and this edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is dedicated to Joseph Tubbs on his 83rd birthday. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’ll now do some research into June.
In today’s installment:
A group associated with an unsuccessful political campaign in Albemarle County has launched a newsletter
One article they wrote this week claims Albemarle is working to create a public-private partnership to complete a key piece of transportation infrastructure
Albemarle County confirms this is happening and points to the recent adoption of guidelines by the Board of Supervisors to govern such partnerships
The project is not related to economic development, though Albemarle has a recent history of giving names to projects in negotiation
First-shout: Piedmont Master Gardeners
In today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out, The Piedmont Master Gardeners Association provides science-based gardening information to the community of Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville. To that end, they have a series of programs with details about various topics you might want to know. Here are two coming up this next month:
On June 4 at 6:30 p.m., the PMG Speakers Bureau will offer tips on how to grow a better lawn using environmentally friendly practices. This will be held at the Center at Belvedere. (learn more)
On June 22 at 2 p.m., there will be a garden basic class called “Backyard Composting for Healthy Soil and a Healthier Planet.” This will be held at the Trinity Episcopal Church in collaboration with the Bread and Roses ministry. This class will likely fill up quick! (learn more)
Piedmont Master Gardeners also want to thank the more than 1,300 people who attended their annual plant sale on May 4. Your support helps them keep going! Learn more at their website!
Group tied to unsuccessful political campaign questions potential plan to complete Eastern Avenue
A group in Crozet has claimed that Albemarle County is working behind the scenes with a developer to plan and potentially fund the completion of a long-anticipated roadway at a lower cost than recently quoted by Virginia transportation officials.
Albemarle officials have confirmed that the county is in negotiations under a relatively new funding mechanism available to staff.
“Project Heron is the name assigned by internal staff for the preliminary discussions of a public-private partnership to construct the Eastern Avenue Connector,” said Abbey Stumpf, Albemarle’s director of communications and public engagement,
An entity called Crozet United published an article this week that claimed the county is in negotiations with Riverbend Development to build a portion of Eastern Avenue, a north-south roadway identified in the Crozet Master Plan as a necessary component to support population growth.
“Crozet United has learned from sources familiar with the matter that Albemarle County officials are working with Riverbend Development to finalize a questionable public private partnership in Crozet,” reads the opening paragraph.
Those sources are not revealed in the course of the article. A representative of Crozet United declined to identify themselves or respond to a series of questions seeking to corroborate their claims.
Among the questions was whether anyone at Crozet United was aware that Albemarle Supervisors agreed on March 20, 2024 to pursue projects through the Virginia Public-Private Transportation Act. (read the story)
“The PPTA's purpose is to encourage investment by private entities by providing more flexible and efficient approaches to finance and operate transportation facilities, to improve safety, reduce congestion, and increase capacity,” reads a page on Albemarle County’s website.
This new mechanism is the latest in a long history of trying to build infrastructure to support a population that has been increasing for several decades. A Freedom of Information Act for more information on the specifics of this project has been submitted.
Infrastructure needed to support designated growth in Crozet
Crozet is one of Albemarle's designated growth areas, a policy distinction that dates back to the 1979 Comprehensive Plan and a county-wide rezoning in 1980. The basic idea is that the county limits residential development to areas where infrastructure will be in place such as an adequate road network as well as water and sewer infrastructure.
On December 1, 2004, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors adopted a master plan for Crozet, the first such document produced in the county. The original plan laid out concepts for how to plan infrastructure to accommodate growth, something that had not been in place on either U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville or on U.S. 250.
A portion of the original document can be viewed in the minutes of the December 1, 2024 meeting. There are several recommendations for the downtown area that have occurred such as construction of a new library and a new roadway between Crozet Avenue and the former Barnes lumber property. Others are still planned such as the redevelopment of the old Barnes Lumberyard and pedestrian crossing of the railroad.
For Crozet-West, one recommendation that has been implemented is improvements to Jarmans Gap Road. One that is partially completed is the development of a Western Park with Albemarle receiving land from the developers of Old Trail. There’s a playground and a walking trail but no other amenities.
The top two recommendations for Crozet-East is the construction of a north-south roadway called Eastern Avenue which would require a bridge to cross Lickinghole Creek. This has not yet occurred.
“The actual programming of projects in the [Capital Improvement Program] will be based on the real timing of population growth, actual development activity that occurs and availability of funding from the sources anticipated in the Master Plan section of ‘Costs and Strategies for Funding Improvements,’” reads the 2004 plan.
However, that section is not included within the minutes and the 2004 plan is not listed on the county’s master planning website.
The Crozet Master Plan has been updated twice in October 2010 and again in October 2021. The U.S. Census reported 2,842 in Crozet in 2000, a figure that rose to 5,565 in 2010 and 9,224 in 2020. Some of the new residents live in neighborhoods constructed along the path of Eastern Avenue.
“The 2010 plan recommended that the Eastern Avenue be constructed by developers during new development, with the exception of the Lickinghole Creek crossing, which would need to be a county initiated project,” reads a version of the plan updated in October 2021.
The 2021 master plan describes the road as being partially complete and that the county anticipated funding the rest of it through the “transportation leveraging fund” in the capital improvement program to match dollars offered by the Virginia Department of Transportation through their “revenue-sharing program.”
“These are typically high-cost projects requiring significant financial commitment to develop and implement,” reads page 284 of Albemarle’s recommended budget for FY25. “These projects are listed and prioritized in the County's Transportation Priority List which is updated and approved every other year by the Board of Supervisors.”
The budget adopted by Supervisors in May allocates $5.1 million to the fund in FY25, $11,333,035 in FY26, and $13.6 million in FY27. The fund had a balance of $2,846,944 as of late February when the recommended budget was introduced.
Formal votes on how to use the funding have not yet been made but the Eastern Avenue project is on the list, as are projects with titles such as “US 250 Pantops Corridor”, “Berkmar Extension to Airport Road”, “Berkmar Path Shared Use Extension”, “Commonwealth/Dominion Drive” and “Old Lynchburg Road (Construction).”
Crozet is not an incorporated town, but part of a larger county. For all of Albemarle, the U.S. Census counted a population of 83,532 in 2000, 99,196 in 2010, and 110,652. The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia estimates that number climbed to 116,148 as of July 1, 2023.
What is Crozet United?
The article published on May 28, 2024 does not identify a specific author. There do not appear to be any names on the website for Crozet United but the footer says the work is a product of Stryker Media.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission lists Eric Schmitz as the registered agent for a limited liability company with that name created on January 22, 2024. Schmitz voluntarily terminated an LLC known as Crozet United on January 30.
Schmitz served as campaign manager for Brad Rykal, an independent candidate who lost to Supervisor Albemarle Ann Mallek (D) in a close race for the White Hall magisterial district that Crozet is within.
“For twenty years now, the County failed to construct the most critical roads, sidewalks, and roundabouts we so desperately need,” said Rykal in a campaign statement published in the October 5, 2023 Crozet Gazette. The Gazette is a newspaper and member of the Virginia Press Association.
Rykal put much of the blame on Mallek, arguing he could do a better job. The message appears to have resonated with voters. Mallek won in 2023 with 4,535 votes to Rykal’s 4,032 votes, the closest of her five races for office.
“We have improved parks and trails, funded large expansions at Brownsville and Crozet Elementary schools, improved streetscapes and sidewalks on Crozet Ave. and Jarmans Gap, provided paid daytime firefighters at the Crozet Fire Dept. and increased police staffing to bring about neighborhood policing, along with so many other good things that make Crozet the place we enjoy today,” Mallek wrote in her statement to the Crozet Gazette.
Mallek was first elected in 2007, defeating incumbent David Wyant in 2007 with 2,953 votes to 2,350 votes. Wyant had voted for the original Crozet Master Plan. Mallek was unopposed in 2011 and 2015, but defeated Republican Steve Harvey in 2019 with 4,381 votes to Harvey’s 3,336 votes.
On January 31, 2024, Rykal announced on his campaign’s Facebook page the creation of a newsletter called Crozet United that seeks to cover the unincorporated community.
On February 12, Rykal used the same Facebook page to urge people to sign a petition started by Schmitz asking the Board of Supervisors to deny a rezoning for the 122-unit Montclair Development in Crozet. The messaging continues the theme of the campaign.
“For decades, the citizens of Crozet have waited patiently for the County to make good on promises to build the vital Eastern Avenue Connector, revitalize the Downtown area, and provide basic public safety amenities such as sidewalks to Claudius Crozet Park,” reads the petition.
Riverbend Development seeks rezoning for 134-unit Oak Bluff neighborhood
At issue is the proposed Oak Bluff development, one of dozens of projects in Albemarle County that await a decision from the Board of Supervisors. In July 2021, Albemarle Supervisors adopted a housing strategy that calls on the county to increase the housing supply to meet an anticipated population of 138,485 by 2040.
“To accommodate this growth, the County will need to add approximately 11,750 new units
to our housing stock over the next 20 years,” reads objective one of Housing Albemarle. “The majority of this need—9,031 units or 77 percent of the required new housing – is projected to be met with units already in the residential development pipeline.”
Albemarle’s Community Development Department has a Development Dashboard with a spreadsheet that is updated every six months with new data about progress toward that goal. The latest update was April 1, 2024. In Crozet, there are 1,697 units approved but not yet built. These include the 122 units at Montclair which Supervisors approved in February and 1,078 units at Old Trail.
The pipeline states that Riverbend Development seeks a rezoning for 134 units at Oak Bluff in a mixture of single-family attached and detached units. The dashboard lists two other projects under current consideration in Crozet totalling 16 units.
In all, the pipeline listed a total of 4,810 of units under review in Albemarle County’s growth areas as of April 1, 2024.
Oak Bluff is within the alignment of Eastern Avenue, a road that has been built in pieces over time through developments such as Foothills Crossing.
Crozet’s Eastern Avenue underway, proposed rezoning would offer new connection to Route 240, Tim Dodson, Charlottesville Tomorrow, July 2, 2016
Albemarle planners support Foothills Crossing rezoning, Sean Tubbs, September 13, 2016
An April 1, 2024 narrative for the Oak Bluff rezoning states that five pieces of land currently zoned Residential-1 will be used for the site, matching the Comprehensive Plan land use designation of Neighborhood Density Residential that calls for up to six dwelling units per acre.
“These are the last parcels to be developed in a vast network of neighborhoods, trails, and transportation infrastructure that is planned for the Crozet area,” reads the narrative. “The final sections of the proposed Eastern Avenue Connector will be accommodated on portions of the site.”
According to the narrative, the project would dedicate 1.55 acres of right of way for the roadway. The application plan describes how the roadway would fit into the overall development.
Three nearby residents filed suit in Albemarle County Circuit Court on February 1 against two subsidiaries of Riverbend (Oak Bluff LLC and Lickinghole Creek LLC) as well as Stanley Martin Homes. They argue that one of the parcels is still subject to a restrictive covenant and that Stanley Martin failed to meet the terms of a declaration by not holding annual meetings.
There are no hearing dates listed in the online records of the Albemarle County Circuit Court. More on that in future editions of the newsletter. This story continues after the break.
Second shout out: Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out: The rolling topography of the Charlottesville area keeps some people away from choosing cycling as an option to get around. Perhaps an e-bike is in order?
That’s where Charlottesville’s eBike Lending Library comes in! E-bikes are a great way to get around the community but there are many brands and styles to choose from. Because many e-bikes are sold online, it can be a challenge to try an e-bike before buying one.
The Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library is a free, not-for-profit service working to expand access to e-bikes in the area. They have a small collection of e-bikes that they lend out to community members for up to a week, for free. You can experience your daily commute, go grocery shopping, or even bike your kids to school, and decide whether e-bikes are right for you. Check out this service at https://www.ebikelibrarycville.org!
Project Heron is not a red herring
The article posted on the Crozet United website is based on documents that identify something called Project Heron in which Riverbend Development would agree to pay for the construction to complete Eastern Avenue as well as a bridge that crosses Lickinghole Creek. There are no links to the source materials referred to in the article, nor do they state how they were obtained.
Crozet United claims the negotiations have been underway for over a year.
“The parties began working on the confidential arrangement over a year ago, likely recognizing that the Oak Bluff parcel could not be rezoned without the County having a viable plan to build the long overdue Lickinghole Creek bridge that would connect Eastern Avenue to Route 250 near Harris Teeter,” claims the article.
I cannot independently verify the details at this time but can provide other background.
Last year, the Virginia Department of Transportation increased the cost estimate for Eastern Avenue to reflect higher construction costs and other factors. This increase represented a change in methodology as the Commonwealth Transportation Board learned in October 2022.
The new figure for Eastern Avenue was $39,474,586, much higher than the $8.121 million the county had committed up to that point to the project through various sources. On August 2, 2023, Supervisors agreed with a recommendation from staff to not pursue a revenue-sharing application in FY2025 for the southern section of Eastern Avenue and the bridge due to the increased cost. Instead, Albemarle applied for these projects in the cycle. (read the story)
At the time, Supervisor Ann Mallek suggested that the county pursue a public-private partnership to find a way to complete the roadway.
“All of those rezonings that were passed were based upon this bridge being built,” Mallek said.
This is not the first time Albemarle County has saved up allocations from VDOT to pay for infrastructure to support growth in Crozet.
In the 2000’s, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s system for funding for secondary roads was much different from today. For years, localities received funding through a formula and could spend it how they saw fit. In the mid-2000’s Albemarle Supervisors allocated funding to three projects which could not proceed until the total cost was covered in a project account. Those three projects were the county’s portion of what would become the John Warner Parkway, as well as improvements on Georgetown Road and Jarmans Gap Road in Crozet.
A design public hearing for the project to improve Jarmans Gap Road was held on March 30, 2006 at Western Albemarle High School. The brochure for the event states that the existing conditions at the time were a 18 foot wide road with minimal shoulders.
“Currently it is proposed to improve only the roadway shoulder to five (5)’ from Route 684 to Jarmans Lane , then from Jarmans Lane to Route 240 two (2) - twelve (12)’ lanes with four (4)’ shared bicycle facilities , curb and gutter and a five (5)’ sidewalk on the west side,” the brochure reads.
Construction did not begin until May 2011 on the $13.5 million project.
For much of the early 21st century, elected officials in Virginia could also ask developers to build infrastructure in exchange through what’s known as the proffer system. Many major rezonings in Albemarle ended up containing conditions requiring developers to spend a lot of money on projects. In November 2007, Will Goldsmith of C-Ville Weekly calculated the Biscuit Run development came with $41 million worth of proffers.
However, a 2013 Supreme Court ruling called that system into question and legislation in 2016 severely limited the amount of money localities could require in cash proffers.
Around the same time, the funding structure for secondary roads in Virginia changed. In 2014, a bill designated as HB2 passed the General Assembly and created a system now known as Smart Scale that requires all projects that seek Smart Scale to be ranked according to a series of metrics.
Those metrics do not apply to the revenue-sharing program. Application deadlines for each alternate year to year with this calendar year being a Smart Scale year.
On March 20 of this year, Supervisors adopted a resolution authorizing county staff to enter into agreements under Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act. (read the story)
“The PPTA provides Albemarle County and other responsible public entities with the opportunity to create public-private partnerships for the development of transportation projects for public use if the county determines there is a need for the project and that the use of of PPTA procedures may provide the project to the public in a more timely or cost-effective fashion,” reads the resolution that adopted the guidelines.
In their article, Crozet United claims that Riverbend will build the road for $17 million and provides a series of scenarios.
When asked if they would share the documents, an unidentified respondent told me to get the information myself through the Freedom of Information Act. That request has been filed.
Stumpf confirmed that the negotiations are underway.
“The Eastern Avenue Connector is in the ‘Staff Identifies Opportunity’ phase of the attached PPTA Guidelines,” Stump said. “Several public process steps remain before a contract could be executed and construction can begin.”
Crozet United did not respond to a question of whether they supported the completion of Eastern Avenue.
It is not unheard of for developers to build sections of roadway or to work on innovative ways to finance infrastructure.
In Charlottesville, the City Council in April 2022 agreed to a rezoning of 12 acres of land for 170 units in part because Southern Development agreed to loan money to the city to make upgrades to Stribling Avenue. The city’s capital improvement program now includes that funding.
In Albemarle, the University of Virginia Foundation paid to construct a road to connect Lewis and Clark Drive to Airport Road, which will eventually connect Berkmar Drive to the North Fork Research Park. The road opened in 2020. (read their story)
Albemarle: Project Heron is not an economic development project
Crozet United reported that this was an economic development project, but Stumpf said neither that office nor the Economic Development Authority were involved. Without primary sources materials in front of me, I did spend some time looking into various projects to see what I could find based on the title of Project Heron.
For many years, Albemarle County officials did not actively pursue economic development. There was not an economic development office until 2015. Shortly afterward, Albemarle Supervisors began meeting in closed session to discuss the potential of preparing a site south of the U.S. 29 / Interstate 64 interchange for what would turn out to be Deschutes Brewery.
While Supervisors expanded the growth area to accommodate a potential industry, the Oregon-based company chose Roanoke instead to be its east coast manufacturing and distribution hub. However, those plans would later fall through.
Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act allows for public bodies to meet privately and without the public present for various purposes. Three of them are worth noting for the purposes of economic development.
“Discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose, or of the disposition of publicly held real property, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body,” reads #3.
“Discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business' or industry's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community,” reads #5.
“Discussion or consideration of the investment of public funds where competition or bargaining is involved, where, if made public initially, the financial interest of the governmental unit would be adversely affected,” reads #6.
Those rules apply to the Albemarle Economic Development Authority, a body created in 1976.
“The EDA's role is to assist qualified businesses and industries who plan to expand or locate within the County by administering grant and bond programs that support economic vitality,” reads the EDA’s website.
Those grants often come from various agencies of Virginia’s executive branch and involve a lot of coordination between Richmond, private entities, and local officials. The Virginia Freedom of Information Act allows correspondence related to potential projects to remain private while negotiations are underway.
Roger Johnson, the second person to hold the position of economic development director, began a practice of identifying these negotiations with code names. The resolutions that allow the EDA to meet privately began to reflect specific projects that were under way.
Project Daffodil involved incentives to attract WillowTree to move their headquarters to the redevelopment Woolen Mills
Project Hawk related to a company called CoConstruct
Project Knight Rider related to Perrone Robotics and an autonomous vehicle pilot in Crozet
Project Leppard was related to a grant allowing a firm called Bonumose to get an incentive for providing jobs. (read the story)
What will happen next? I hope to report as much as I can. The use of PPTA is novel, and anything novel should be studied and reviewed.
May the #683 be with you
This edition is an outlier. I had a tip about Project Heron a day before Crozet United’s article came out and my initial reporting was based on it potentially being an economic development article. I spent about ten hours going through minutes of the Economic Development Authority to track down all of the various code names used from Project 49’ers to Project Turtle.
Last night, I won an impact award from the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council for my journalism. More on the other recipients later as they’ve actually done something.
I’m not good at receiving praise, and have a more than healthy amount of imposter syndrome. I do know, though, that once a story gets into me I have to devote everything to it which is why this is the only story in this edition.
I want to support the work of other journalists, but I also want those other journalists to work to a certain set of standards. Number one is that you put your name to your work. For me, number two is you don’t use adjective or adverbs that steer the reader in a direction. A third principle for me is to give the reader the same materials you’re looking at. When I obtain documents through FOIA, I place them in a location where anyone with an Internet connection can get them.
In a minute, I’ll hit send on this and regret I’m putting it out on a Friday night. But I want to get to the other stories I want to tell, such as completing the story on the trip to Champaign-Urbana. I want to break flesh out my idea of writing about other communities that begin with CH. There’s so much I want to do to help people understand what’s happening and to provide context.
I am not here to tell anyone what to think. I am not here to persuade. I am here to document what’s happening, the same way I’ve been doing for over a third of my life now.
I’m able to do that because of paid subscribers, and I’m so grateful for each and everyone of you. I’m also grateful I’ve finished this edition so I can get on to the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and so on until I’m not sure when.
If you become a paid subscriber through Substack, Ting will match your initial subscription. That can be at the $5 a month level, the $50 a year level, or the $200 a year level. If you have any questions, drop me a line.
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