November 19, 2024: Albemarle County to hire consultants to assist with monitoring how development area land is used
Plus: A look at some bills filed so far in the 2025 General Assembly and three upcoming special elections
There are 42 days left in the year 2024 now that we are up to November 19. Eight score and one year ago, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address that concludes with the hope and prayer that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This is Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and sometimes podcast intended to document some of the discussions we’re having now about the future. I’m Sean Tubbs, and this is what I do.
In today’s installment:
A look at some of the bills pre-filed for the 2025 General Assembly
A look at the three special elections in Virginia
There will be presentations this afternoon on challenging facing solid waste disposal and the area’s future water supply
Albemarle Supervisors continue to review the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan and discuss whether tweaking land use categories and activity centers will help improve development areas
First-shout: Stand-up comedy tonight at Rapture on the Downtown Mall
In today’s first shout-out which no-strings-attached shout-out: Tonight, people who want to make other people laugh will take the stage at Rapture on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. The Tip Top Twins and Jemar O’Neal will host the second R.O.F.L. Stand-Up Comedy Showcase at 8 p.m. on the Downtown Mall. Music starts at 7 p.m.
To learn more, take a listen to a recent radio interview on WTJU.
Bills trickling in for 2025 General Assembly including independence for Richard Bland College
There are now fifty days until the 2025 session of the Virginia General Assembly.
We don’t yet know what the exact make-up of the Senate will be because there are two special elections pending to replace members who were elected to the U.S. Congress. There’s also a special election for one of the House seats. More on that in a moment.
But we do know that bills are already being filed.
One of them would grant independence to Richard Bland College, currently a two-year school just south of Petersburg that is currently a part of the College of William and Mary.
SB742 filed by Senator Mamie Locke would remove the authority of that institution in favor of a new body.
“The bill provides for the transfer of relevant property and rights thereto, contracts, and duties from the Board of Visitors of The College of William and Mary in Virginia to the Board of Visitors of Richard Bland College,” reads the summary of the legislation.
Richard Bland lived from 1710 to 1776 and was the author of a 1766 pamphlet called An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies. He died shortly after the creation of the House of Delegates in October 1776.
Other bills:
SB743 from Senator Barbara Favola (D-40) would prevent extradition of anyone who travels to Virginia for reproductive health services.
SB744 from Senator Barbara Favola (D-40) would prevent the transfer of a firearm owned by someone prohibited because of a protective order or being convicted of assault and battery to another person.
HB1552 from Delegate Bill Wiley (R-32) would allow the unlimited use of “swing beds” by “critical access hospitals” to increase capacity without needing to seek a certificate of public need first. Current law only allows 10 percent.
SB746 from Senator Ryan McDougle would make it a felony homicide in the second degree for someone who distributes a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance who then dies.
One reason I am doing this so early is because there is a new Legislative Information System and I’m not used to it yet.
Three special elections to take place before 2025 General Assembly
Two members of the Virginia Senate were elected to the U.S. Congress earlier this month meaning that two vacancies need to be filled. Prior to the election, the Democrats held a 21 to 19 majority over the Republicans.
Democratic Senator Suhas Subramanyam was elected to the 32nd Senate District in 2023 and has been elected to the Tenth District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Senator Louisa Lucas, president pro tempore of the body, has called a special election on January 7, 2025 to fill the seat.
Democratic Delegate Kannan Srinivasan of the 26th District will resign that seat to run to replace Subramanyam in the Virginia Senate. That paves the way for another special election on January 7, 2025 to replace him in the lower body. Democrats hold a 51 to 49 majority.
Srinivasan will face Republican Tumay Harding. The Virginia Public Access Projects lists this district as “Strong Democratic.” (view on VPAP)
Republican Senator John McGuire has represented the 10th Senate District for less than a year. He will now become the Fifth District Representative in the U.S. Congress. A special election has not yet been called.
Three Republicans are in the race according to VPAP. They are former Senator Amanda Chase, Jean Gannon, and Shane Snavely. VPAP lists District 10 as “Strong Republican.”
Rivanna Authorities meet today for presentations on solid waste challenges, future water supply
This week’s Week Ahead was very full and I did not get to everything. For instance, I missed the meetings of both the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Both are held at the Rivanna Administration Building at 695 Moores Creek Lane.
The RSWA goes first at 2 p.m. There will be a presentation on the future challenges involved with solid waste. (view the packet)
The presentation mentions several capital projects planned for the future such as the Northern Albemarle Convenience Center that will be constructed by 2027 and 17 acres of solar panels that will go on top of the Ivy landfill. There’s also a new $6.4 million baling facility to increase ability to process cardboard and paper.
A growing population will mean more waste. Constructing more places for people to live will generate more waste. But Virginia itself may soon run out of room to put that waste.
“According to the VDEQ’s 2021 Annual Solid Waste Report, Virginia has 21 years of [Municipal Solid Waste] landfill capacity remaining,” reads a statement in the presentation.
The RWSA goes next. On the agenda is a presentation on long-range planning for water and wastewater services. I hope to write about both of these. (meeting info)
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Albemarle County to get outside help to review of how development area is used
If Albemarle County is to keep its growth area boundaries intact without an expansion, staff has told the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors that they will need to keep a close eye on how the development is being used.
In the early stages of the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update, staff and the firm Kimley Horn took a look at 20 residential rezonings that took place between 2016 and 2021.
“When analyzing the actual buildout of these rezoning developments, the total number of units approved was approximately 58 percent of the maximum number of units recommended per the Comprehensive Plan,” reads what’s called a build-out analysis. (read the document)
Members of both bodies have asked for more metrics and now a consultant will be hired to provide that analysis. Supervisors got an update at the very beginning of a November 6, 2024 work session on the Comprehensive Plan.
“I have been instructed by the County Executive's office to reach out to a couple consulting firms with which we work to see about establishing a scope of work to help us with those formulas,” said Community Development Director Jodie Filardo.
The topic at this work session also related to development are utilization by introducing Supervisors to the future land use categories that will be used on the future land use map, as well an update of what county staff refer to as activity and employment centers. The Planning Commission had a look at the same material on October 22, 2024 if you want to go into more detail.
As a reminder, the AC44 process has been underway for three years now as Supervisors approved a resolution on November 3. There have been two phases of input so far according to Planning Manager Tonya Swarzendruber.
“Some of the input themes that we heard during phase one and two is that development should be walkable and mixed use with a variety of housing types, looking for those activity centers to pair higher density with amenities and recreation, and also encourage infill development,” Swarzendruber said.
Swarzendruber said people who participated encouraged investment in existing neighborhoods as well as linking transportation and land use. These basic themes have been part of the comprehensive planning process in Albemarle for a long time, but the difference this time around is that the lower end of the land use categories calls for three to six units per acre.
As one way to increase the number of housing units, staff are suggesting increasing development rights in all areas classified as “neighborhood residential.”
“One way to address housing choice is to allow detached accessory units in all residential zoning districts for single family detached houses so these types of units could be built throughout the development areas,” Swarzendruber said.
That would take a change to the zoning code, a change that would be informed by the Comprehensive Plan.
As for activity centers, staff is recommending reducing those from around 50 centers in the current plan down to about 30 to make it more likely for the planning ideals to be implemented.
For decades, the Comprehensive Plan has encouraged that new residences be built in the development area, which is on about five percent of the land. The current draft continues that principle.
Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District noted that many who attended a meeting of all of the county’s growth area advisory committees wanted better information on how the county has done so far.
“That is a good question,” Gallaway said. “I think the utilization review is going to get there but I think it goes beyond just the percentages. It has to be, well, how well have we done providing the transit and the transportation and all of that?”
Gallaway said several Supervisors had asked for scorecards for how each new proposed rezoning would meet the theoretical maximum so elected officials could know in real-time how they are meeting planning goals.
“I don't see mention of that in here now it may not be figured out how you're going to do that but that idea was endorsed and it's my expectation that those would be put into draughts for the next time that we address it,” Gallaway said.
Gallaway said he was skeptical that many of the activity centers were realistic, especially ones that may be considered entertainment destinations in the future because the population isn’t enough to support more movie theaters. He also said that many of the places that had been promised as centers didn’t pan out when development actually happened.
“Belvedere was supposed to have a lot of retail and other components built into it based on that model,” Gallaway said, “There is a dentist office, there's the Center, which wasn't even thought of back then. That's it.”
Back then was 2004 when Supervisors approved the development, which was to have included at least 25,000 square feet of commercial space.
In 2024, the developers of Brookhill are asking to scale back the allowed density as I reported in the October 30, 2024 C-Ville Weekly.
Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District echoed Gallaway’s comments on centers, pointing out at one point an ice rink has been planned for Brookhill. She said people who own land need to get involved.
“Can they give us ideas?” LaPisto-Kirtley said. “I don't know. Because let's face it, if you have an area, if you have land and the developers don't want to do anything there or build what you want them to build, that's not going to happen.”
It should be noted as well that the Great Eastern Management Company has sought a rezoning of the approved North Pointe development to allow more homes and less commercial. GEMC also owns the Pantops Shopping Center which is listed as a center. Old Trail
On the topic of accessory dwelling units, Gallaway said he would support having those need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Ann Mallek of the White Hall District said she was skeptical allowing them everywhere would increase the number of affordable units.
“The cost for a homeowner to do this is absolutely unsupportable by anything except a tenant who is a university student who's going to pay you several thousand dollars a month for living there,” Mallek said.
Mallek also said older neighborhoods in Crozet could not support additional units but she would reserve complete judgment until there are more details.
Supervisor Diantha McKeel said she would support accessory units with many caveats.
“I get very concerned in a University town if you start just putting a lot of accessory dwelling units,” McKeel said. “What you're going to do is to take the load off of the University of Virginia and you're going to end up providing housing in many areas for UVA students.”
McKeel said UVA needs to be part of the conversation about housing students. Here are three examples of what UVA is doing:
The University of Virginia is currently planning to build up to 2,000 beds as part of an initiative to house second-year students on Grounds.
There is a master plan for the Ivy Garden apartment complex that UVA owns between North Grounds and Central Grounds that anticipates increasing the number of apartments from 440 to 718. I wrote about that, too.
The Darden School of Business just broke ground on student housing. Here’s an article I did not write.
The University of Virginia will build an unknown number of units at the North Fork Discovery Park. I need to do an update on that.
McKeel also said she didn’t mind if more people live in the rural area.
“Some people want to live in Fluvanna,” McKeel said. “We should not just broad stroke that everybody has to live in [the development area]. Having said that we should be providing transit and some way for them to get to work and back if they want it.”
Another item that came up at the Planning Commission’s October 16 meeting was the idea of adding additional development areas to replace land that has not been developed with density such as the Village of Rivanna. McKeel supported the idea.
“ Let's see if we can do some trading possibly of development area [land] where something can actually happen,” McKeel said.
Supervisor Michael Pruitt of the Scottsville District called the Village of Rivanna a failure of planning that should be corrected.
“I know the residents of the Village of Rivanna that I speak to are not happy with the fact that they continue to be a development area,” Pruitt said. “They don't like the looming sword of Damocles of potentially the small remaining undeveloped lots being built out.”
Pruitt wanted to know what it would look to find additional land that could be traded out, though he acknowledged the Albemarle County Service Authority has already build infrastructure to support higher density that will never materialize.
Pruitt also said Albemarle owes its citizens more frequent updates of the Comprehensive Plan. The last one was adopted in the summer of 2015. He also questioned whether enough people are participating, pointing out that relying on the community advisory committees may not be enough.
Pruitt indirectly referred to Charlottesville’s Cville Plans Together initiative which resulted in an affordable housing plan, a Comprehensive Plan, and a new zoning code.
“There's a lot of things that I don't think Charlottesville's government does the way I would like it done, but they did have, I think, a very robust and challenging but productive conversation on their [Future Land Use Map],” Pruitt said. “I'm not sure if I have ever had a constituent ask, when do I give feedback on our Future Land Use Map? I don't know what I'm actually supposed to tell them and I don't know when I'm supposed to be getting feedback on the Future Land Use Map.”
Pruitt said he felt there might still be too many centers on the map given the amount of time it takes to get infrastructure built. He says he lives within a half mile of the South Side Shopping Center which has a grocery store and a restaurant, but walking there is impossible.
“I have to walk uphill against traffic in a single lane road for part of it in order to get to Tangerine's Kitchen, which is a place I like and would go to dinner walking if I could safely,” Pruitt said. “But I can't, even though it's five minutes walking up the street.”
Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District said he supported having a conversation about the Village of Rivanna, but that was not appropriate at this point of the Comprehensive Plan. He also said he would support accessory units being by-right where they are appropriate, suggesting activity centers might be such a location.
“I was fascinated by and trying to understand further the idea of accessory dwelling units being done by developers,” Andrews said. “I guess I do recall that in Southwood there are some units that are kind of townhouses but behind them there are accessory units.”
More on the Comprehensive Plan in future editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement. The above will also be edited slightly when it goes to Information Charlottesville. There is a method to this madness.
Reading material:
Staunton mayor requests closed meeting to discuss performance of city manager, Crystal Graham, Augusta Free Press, November 15, 2024
Falls Church could be next Va. locality to take up ranked-choice voting, Scott McCaffrey, ARLNow.com, November 15, 2024
Appalachian Power wants to bring small modular reactors to Virginia, Sean Wolfe, Power Engineering, November 18, 2024
Energy policymakers convene for Virginia Clean Economy Act summit, Charlie Paullin, Virginia Mercury, November 19, 2024
Well, so long #764!
I’ve written about planning for a long time in this community. This is certainly a niche and if not for cvillepedia, there’s no way I would have been able to keep track of it all. There does seem to be a disconnect between the way planners communicate, the way developers communicate, and many information outlets decided a long time to go to just stop bothering keeping track.
Yet, keeping track is what Town Crier Productions was created to do. I’d done this work for eleven years before a management change happened, and in the two years I was away I was struck by how little there was to find out about growth and development.
Of course, I do more than that now and hope to do even more.
Paid subscriptions help keep it going and one day I’ll figure out how to expand.
For now, I want to get this out in the hopes one new person decides to listen in on the RWSA and RSWA meetings today.
A democracy needs informed citizens and misinformation spreads instability. My reporting comes from a philosophy that believes stability leads to better outcomes for all. If I’m wrong on that, so be it. I know how I’m going to keep reporting.
I am also grateful that the internet company Ting has sponsored this newsletter since April 2021 by matching the initial paid Substack subscription for new subscribers. This has really made a difference and it continues.
If you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
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A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
