As Charlottesville’s zoning code continues its third year of implementation, the new rules face many challenges, some of which will go through the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
On March 19, the quasi-judicial body will take up the definition of student housing as it relates to a proposed seven-story apartment building on Seventh Street SW.
“Student housing must use rental agreements that lease on a per bedroom basis and be located within 1/2-mile of the University of Virginia campus as determined by the [Zoning] Administrator,” reads the Development Code.
Fifeville resident Paul Reeder is challenging a determination by Zoning Administrator Read Brodhead that The Mark is within that radius, which would allow LCD Acquisitions to pay a lower amount to buy out requirements to guarantee a percentage of units be affordable. This is known as a pay-in-lieu fee.
“There is a significant difference between these two schedules, with the average cost per unit increasing from $149,025 to $337,648,” Reeder wrote in a letter of appeal to the city. “The Zoning Administrator’s current determination is thus robbing the City of millions of dollars, and handing that money directly to the developer.”
The city’s charter defines UVA’s land as being anything owned by the “Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia,” as of January 1, 1939. That includes a piece of land at the intersection of West Main Street and Jefferson Park Avenue that is technically within Albemarle County and part of one 15-acre parcel.
The Development Code relies on other documents for interpretation, such as a manual for affordable dwelling units that adds more information, like the note that “outlying University-owned parcels are not considered part of the campus for the purposes of this ordinance.”
Reeder argues in the appeal that this applies to the intersection and that the administrator ignored this sentence.
“This pocket park is separated from the rest of the University Grounds by the Buckingham Branch Railroad,” Reeder wrote.
LCD Acquisitions has hired attorney Steven Blaine with Woods Rogers for both the March 19 hearing and other pending legal matters related to The Mark. In a March 12 letter, Blaine wrote that Reeder does not have standing to bring the case, which would next go to Charlottesville Circuit Court.
“The appellant cannot identify any direct, immediate, pecuniary, or stake in the difference between the applicable student housing in-lieu payment and the conventional in-lieu payment,” Blaine said.
Blaine’s letter also points out that UVA is in the midst of planning an upgrade to the park that will serve as a gateway to Central Grounds. The site was formerly the location of the now-removed George Rogers Clark statue and will in the future be known as University of Virginia Park.
The BZA meeting begins at 4pm in City Council chambers, the same place where Council will eventually hear an appeal of the Board of Architectural Review’s denial of a certificate of appropriateness for the project, which has not yet been scheduled.
