After a public hearing last week, the Charlottesville Planning Commission sent a proposal for 170 new housing units back to the developer for updates.
Southern Development is asking the city to rezone 12 acres of land in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood to allow the construction of a new complex of townhomes and apartments. Fifteen percent of those units would have to be designated affordable housing.
“The Planning Commission told us very clearly [they] wanted to see something more dense and less suburban,” said Charlie Armstrong, vice president at Southern Development.
The development’s fate could depend on whether or not the city and the developers can scrounge up enough cash to fund sidewalk upgrades and other safety improvements around the area.
Last year, the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association expressed support for the development on the condition that such updates went through. Armstrong then negotiated an agreement with the Office of Economic Development, promising that Southern Development would give a $2 million loan to the city to build those improvements. The city would then pay Southern Development back over a period of years out of the increased property taxes that it’s set to receive.
At the meeting, the city and the developer clashed over the specifics of the deal: Southern Development estimates the infrastructure upgrades will cost around $1.6 million. City Engineer Jack Dawson said he’d only seen the proposal two days before the meeting, but that it could cost as much as $2.9 million in his estimation. “It isn’t just a sidewalk. It’s essentially a streetscape, because when you touch a road you need to bring it up to code,” he said.
Armstrong expressed frustration at the discrepancy between the estimates. “That’s not a number that I’ve ever seen published, or have ever heard,” Armstrong said, even though the company has “been talking with the city, and been in this review process with the city, for months and years.”
The city doesn’t have much to spare by way of capital improvement funding: Last week, council opted to transfer funding allocated for the West Main Streetscape to the $75 million reconfiguration of Buford Middle School. Budget staff said that could require as much as a 15-cent tax increase next year.
“Right now, every penny we are going to have in capital funds is going to get allocated for school reconfiguration,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook.
The co-president of the FSNA appreciated the work that went into the agreement, but said it was not yet enough to satisfy his concerns.
“There is a potential to find a solution here, but there is a big but,” said Jason Halbert. “It’s about safety on that street and the JPA intersection.”
Halbert said the agreement had not been fully reviewed by the appropriate staff. He asked for the project to be delayed while the details of the agreement are worked out.
Planning Commissioner Hosea Mitchell said he liked the project overall but agreed it might not be ready.
“I think it could use a little more baking,” Mitchell said. “There would be value in sitting with the engineers and the economic development people and working out the details and logistics.”
Another commissioner suggested the city has to do a better job of communicating internally on matters like this, especially given that the current draft of the city’s new comprehensive plan encourages the creation of more dense housing across the city.
“It’s endlessly frustrating to me, the degree of dysfunction within the city,” said Commissioner Rory Stolzenburg, “that the economic development office is negotiating this agreement and isn’t even telling [the city engineer] about it until literally two days ago.”
Southern Development requested an infinite deferral to see if the details can be worked out.
County approves 254 units near Forest Lakes
Also last week, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved a development that will see 254 apartments—190 of which will be set aside as affordable housing—constructed just off Route 29. The project was approved in a 5-1 vote. The county’s comprehensive plan had highlighted the area as a good spot for potential growth.
“I personally live in an area where many apartment units have gone up,” said Ned Gallaway, chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. “And they fill quickly. The question is whether the infrastructure is there to support the density.”
Throughout the approval process, the community association of the nearby Forest Lakes neighborhood argued against the project, saying it was out of scale with their existing neighborhoods.
“We talk a lot about how we are an inclusive and welcoming place to live. This is an opportunity to create a place for people to live that have not been able to live in our community,” said Supervisor Diantha McKeel.
In her support for the project, McKeel noted that VDOT has invested nearly $230 million in road improvements in Albemarle within recent years, and is currently studying how to further expand transit to the area.
