October 7, 2025: Albemarle Planning Commission passes AC44 on to Board of Supervisors following discussion on future growth area adjustments
Plus: Charlottesville City Manager has hired an assistant
Today’s edition is sponsored by the Ragged Mountain Running and Walking Shop
Perhaps we can all agree that October 7, 2025, is the 280th day of the year. But yet there are other calendars and a reference on Wikipedia says that the Hebrew version begins from this date in 3761 BC. How might the days of the week look like in 5,000 years from now? Charlottesville Community Engagement is not charged with answering that question. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I do think it’s worth understanding multiple perspectives.
In today’s installment:
A 20-year-old woman has been charged with reckless driving after striking and killing a pedestrian on U.S. 29 last week
Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders has hired an assistant
The developers of the Windy Knoll neighborhood in Crozet have returned with a slightly smaller project
Albemarle County experienced a growth in direct visitor spending in 2024 while Charlottesville’s tally had a slight decline
Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan has passed an important milestone after the Planning Commission has a final discussion on language related to future growth area expansion
First-shout: Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU present JD Allen and his Trio
Coming up on October 16 at 7:30 p.m., the Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU will welcome J.D. Allen and his Trio to a concert at Unity of Charlottesville. Tickets are available here.
JD Allen is a tenor saxophonist and composer known for his powerful sound, uncompromising artistry, and deeply expressive voice in contemporary jazz. With a style rooted in tradition but driven by exploration, his music reflects a commitment to emotional honesty, clarity of form, and improvisational depth.
JD Allen, Ian Kenselaar and Nic Cacioppo form a trio defined by raw energy, deep listening, and unflinching honesty. The group embraces spontaneity and form in equal measure, carving out a sound that is both rooted in jazz tradition and relentlessly forward-moving.
Tickets to see The JD Allen Trio at Unity of Charlottesville on October 16th at 7:30 pm are available online. General Admission is $25; Paid supporters of The Charlottesville Jazz Society pay $22. All tickets will be $30 at the door.
Deputy City Manager Freas addresses pedestrian fatality on Emmet Street
On the night of October 1 at around 9:30 p.m., 67-year-old James Leroy Jones was struck and killed by a motor vehicle while he was crossing Emmet Street North near Holliday Drive.
On October 3, the Charlottesville Police Department filed charges against 20-year-old Eleanor Cribbs for reckless driving and for driving with a handheld device.
Deputy City Manager James Freas took the opportunity at the October 6 meeting to give updates on efforts to improve conditions for pedestrians.
“Improving pedestrian safety has been a long term goal of the city and in particular last year we have really done a focused effort on investing in rapid deployment of quick-build materials and methods to try to improve pedestrian safety across the entire city,” Freas said.
Last fall, a woman named Mamawa Samai was killed crossing Elliott Avenue on the evening of October 3. Her death prompted much discussion and led to the creation of the quickbuild programs. Freas said a similar assessment will take place for the U.S. 29 area to see if there are any quick improvements that might be made.
“We’re going to be looking to turn around some recommendations as quickly as possible,” Freas said.
A pedestrian bridge across U.S. 29 further to the north is expected to be completed at the end of the month.
City Manager Sanders hires an assistant
Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders restructured his administration last week, eliminating one deputy position and creating several others.
Sanders announced the hiring of Steve King as “Assistant to the City Manager” at City Council’s meeting on October 6.
“I know that’s a new title for folks around here but it’s one that is overdue because I need help,” Sanders said.
King most recently served as a Senior Program Manager for the International City / County Management Association (ICMA), of which Charlottesville is a member. He has also worked as an economic development program administrator in Richmond and as a senior policy advisor to a Colorado governor. King is originally from Denver, Colorado.
Sanders said King will help manage projects and he started on October 6.
“I look forward to working on behalf of our office in partnership [with Council] on advancing [their] priorities,” King said. “To the residents of the community, I look forward to building relationships with all of you and learning more about how we can be good partners in advancing the work.”
Other positions waiting to be filled include two assistant city managers. That position has now been posted.
“Assignments may include the oversight of specific departments and responsibility for executing certain community engagement initiatives,” reads the posting. “The Assistant responds to inquiries from the City Council and the public and oversees and participates in the planning and administration of major projects and programs.”
The salary is to be no higher than $205,000.
For more details on the restructuring, go back and read earlier coverage.
Windy Knoll development in Crozet returns with fewer units
Crozet has been one of Albemarle’s designated growth areas for over 40 years but much of the underlying zoning is such that developers have to seek adjustments to proceed with development.
In May, Shimp Engineering filed plans for a rezoning of 3.15 acres next to the Cory Farm development The request for the Windy Knoll development was to change the land from Residential-1 to Residential-10 to allow for construction of 22 townhome units.
That resulted in a density calculation of 7 units per acre, slightly higher than what the “neighborhood density residential” in the Crozet Master Plan would allow. After staff recommended the rezoning be for Residential-6, the applicants asked for a deferral to rework the project.
Now Shimp Engineering has returned with an application for Windy Knoll that does just that for a total of 18 units.
“This mixed zoning area of Crozet creates a unique opportunity for infill housing that is in close, walking proximity to amenities, including the shops at Clover Lawn. Pedestrian improvements to Route 250 also make Harris Teeter and the businesses in the Blue Ridge Shopping Center accessible from the Property,” reads the new narrative for ZMA.
Under the new plans, four single-family dwellings would be built in the southern portion while a multifamily building would be constructed in the northern portion.
All of the materials for this rezoning can be found on Albemarle County’s Civic Access portal.
Tourists and business visitors spent nearly $1 billion in Charlottesville area in 2024
As local governments seek additional revenue to pay for services, one local industry continued to experience growth in 2024.
According to data from the Virginia Tourism Corporation, visitors to Albemarle and Charlottesville spent $989.8 million during the year. That’s up 3.5 percent from 2023.
“Visitors are choosing our area to experience our internationally-renowned wine scene, outdoor recreation experiences, historic attractions, delicious culinary outlets and unique lodging, and we are excited to continue to work with our valued tourism partners and residents to celebrate and build this robust sector of our economy,” said Courtney Cacatian, executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, in a September 8, 2025 information release.
When you break the numbers down, visitors to Albemarle spent $587.2 million in direct spending, up 6.5 percent from 2023.
Charlottesville, however, experienced a 0.8 percent decrease with $402.6 million.
The VTC data shows that there are 7,172 tourism jobs in the area. Tourism generated $27.7 million in local taxes for Albemarle and $20.8 million for Charlottesville.
Second shout-out: Plant Virginia Natives
Well, it’s almost fall and I did a terrible job again this year of keeping my yard tidy! The invasive plants won this round what about next year? One day I am hoping to get ahead of the creeper and vine that thrive in the humidity and the hot sun. What could I plant instead if I one day find myself with a green thumb?
One resource I could consult is Plant Virginia Natives to figure my way out of my predicament. 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.
Albemarle’s next Comprehensive Plan passes through Planning Commission
The end is near for AC44, the name given to the update of Albemarle County’s Comprehensive Plan. The document provides overarching guidance for growth and development, including continuation of a policy that restricts growth to about five percent of the county’s landmass.
Albemarle County did not hire a consultant to write the update process and instead took on the project inhouse. The last plan was adopted in June 2015 and Supervisors officially began the review in November 2021.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to adopt AC44 on October 15 after a public hearing. The Planning Commission had their public hearing on October 2 and got some community engagement figures from Ben Holt, a long range planner for Albemarle County. In all there were four phases.
“We’ve had more than 40,000 visitors to our AC44 website,” Holt said. “And throughout the four phases, more than 2,700 people have participated in AC44 engagement in the form of online surveys, email comments, chat kit, discussions, and attendance through either in person or virtual events.”
Many elements of the 2015 plan have been condensed such as reducing the number of activity centers and consolidating more than 20 land use categories into 12 in the development area. AC44 builds off of the recently adopted Economic Development Strategic Plan and the Housing Albemarle policy adopted in July 2021.
“The overall length of the plan has been reduced to 278 pages in comparison to the previous 406 pages in the 2015 plan excluding the appendices,” Holt said.
After the Board adopts AC44, the document will not go into effect until January 1. In the meantime, staff will create an implementation plan that will include additional details about how AC44 will begin to influence county policy.
“Staff will also further refine our process for small area plans, including those activity centers and incorporating multimodal transportation plans,” Holt said. “AC44 will also continue to inform the zoning ordinance modernization project as our county code is updated and rewritten.”
Another item in the implementation plan will be a restoration of a way for property owners to seek approval from the Board of Supervisors to have rural land added to the designated growth area. This would take the form of a citizen-initiated Comprehensive Plan Amendment, an ability removed by a previous Board who wanted new additions to only be considered when individual master plans were up for review.
“We recognize that with the opportunities for somebody to amend the future land use map really being set upon when we do master plans for each area that may not be frequent enough to meet existing conditions and things that are changing in the market,” said Michael Barnes, Albemarle’s Planning Director.
Changing the Sweet Spot?
During the public hearing, two men who own land near the interchange of Interstate 64 and U.S. 29 asked for their property’s designation to be changed from from the purple of Industrial to the pink of Community Mixed Use. Land owned by Sweetspot LLC was brought into the development area in 2015 as I wrote at the time for Charlottesville Tomorrow.
“For the last 10 years there has not been any interest in our land for industrial purposes,” said Doug Holliday. “However, there has been interest in developing the property for other uses.”
For two years, the land was included in Riverbend Development’s rezoning request for the Sieg property that went before the Planning Commission for a public hearing in early September. The company asked for a deferral to come back with a more concrete proposal. One of the sticking points was that Riverbend was in no position to guarantee an easement across the Sweetspot land to future county parkland.
While there was some support for recommending the change, the Commission opted not to do so at this late stage in the process.
Public hearing
Another speaker at the public hearing was Neil Williamson, president of the Free Enterprise Forum. He called AC44 a missed opportunity to expand the development area to provide for housing and commercial space.
“This is a plan for the status quo and will result in further gentrification and less housing affordability across Albemarle County,” Williamson said. “Virginia state law mandates that all local governments adopt a comprehensive plan to guide future development and ensure orderly growth as outlined in the Code of Virginia.”
During the AC44 process, Supervisors directed staff to remove consideration of studying some commercial uses at the Shadwell and Yancey Mills interchanges on I-64 as I reported for C-Ville Weekly.
The draft still contains language that sets up criteria to be considered when thinking of future growth area boundary adjustments and a representative from the Southern Environmental Law Center asked for that to be removed.
“Because premature expansion of the development areas would undermine the county’s growth policy, we remain concerned about the inclusion of criteria for development area boundary revisions in the Comprehensive Plan,” said Carroll Courtenay. “Such criteria should instead be developed through a separate planning process in order to give them appropriate, appropriate attention and to allow for adequate public input.”
After the public hearing was closed, Commissioner Julian Bivins noted that there had been many emails sent to the county asking for the language on expanding the development areas to be removed to a different document. He expressed disappointment that an active campaign at the very end of a four-year process would result in a change that had had support from the Board of Supervisors.
“It feels like we’re wordsmithing because some people took the opportunity to send group emails because a number of the things that we received over the last 48 hours for all intent and purpose, was the exact same email, except they changed their name at the top and at the bottom,” Bivins said.
Commissioner Lonnie Murray expressed his concern about the language during a work session on August 26 and repeated the comment after the public hearing.
“There’s a lot of factors at play that really aren’t being discussed here,” Murray said. “And I think that it needs a lot of work.”
Commissioner Nathan Moore said his reading of land use data is that the development area is filling up.
“It’s not full, per se, but we’re getting there and we’re going to get there,” Moore said. “It’s just five percent of the county’s land. And I feel like we should be starting these conversations now about, you know, where to expand the development area.”
Moore suggested one way to proceed would be the development area boundary as it was in 1979.
However, Commission Chair Fred Missel suggested they look at the criteria and Murray read through many of them asking for them to be eliminated. Moore said he didn’t support any of the changes.
“At most, I would support putting the word ‘potential’ in the headline where it says potential criteria,” Moore said.
Commissioner Luis Carrazana said the AC44 project has been imperfect and a long process and the section on future development area expansion was not quite ready. He thought a recommendation could be made without getting too bogged down into the specifics.
“What we’re signaling to the board is, hey, this is a section that we got to pay attention to and we don’t think that these criterias are necessarily hitting the mark, so let’s sit down, spend some time and evaluate and come up with a better set of criteria for, for this section,” Carrazana said.
Bivins said the criteria would help staff and future Planning Commissioners make determinations as developers seek land they can build on. He agreed with Moore that the county will eventually run out of space, but homes can always be built in the rural area for those with means.
“I just feel as this plan gives you, gives us, or gives future people a reasonable way to engage with the planning commission on how do we sort of continue to bring this community forward,” Bivins said.
The Planning Commission voted to send the draft on to the Board of Supervisors with some recommended amendments. The Board of Supervisors held an additional work session on October 3 and that will be my next story on AC44.
Reading material for October 7, 2025
University construction wraps up summer projects, what now?, Luca Bailey, Cavalier Daily, October 6, 2025
“At What Cost?”: Fluvanna Residents Push Back on Tenaska Expansion at Town Hall Meeting, Heather Michon, Fluvanna Review, October 6, 2025
After federal funding cuts, Va. maternal mortality data collection to continue until next August, Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury, October 7, 2025
Study: Va. community college enrollment down as career, technical education signups increase, Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury, October 7, 2025
Round we go, #933
Another day, another newsletter. I’ve been at this now for five years. Will I still be here in another five years?
This is where I confess I don’t know what I’ll be doing at the weekend, let alone some time that seems imaginary and futuristic. I try to live in the moment.
For much of the past five years of this newsletter, I put my head down and just did the work. That first year of the pandemic, I poured myself into work. I still do that, but I’m grumbling more and more because I realize now that not everyone does this.
And now the future looks much more difficult. Soon I will have to renew my health insurance coverage and I expect it will skyrocket due to the way this country operates. I already do not go to the doctor because I cannot afford to do so. I’ve been able to do this work because I could afford to pay for emergency coverage.
Now even that may not be possible now and this is having several ripple effects on my future as well as my past.
Did I choose the right career path?
Why do I do this work?
Why did I work seven days a week for nearly five years?
What is it about this work that draws me in and keeps me going?
What are the friction points?
What else could I do to feel a sense of meaning and purpose?
Now is not the time to answer any of these questions.
Now is the time to clear my head and move on with the day. That means getting ready for tomorrow’s newsletter. People have come to depend on my work, and it’s okay if you only skim! I’m trying to do something different in a world where our media ecosystem has largely been salted.
Sometimes a little Sonic Youth can help soften the soil.