Sean Tubbs, Author at C-VILLE Weekly

Coalition seeks zoning change in Louisa County to allow churches to be used for overnight stays in winter

The arrival of spring brings the end of the season for PACEM, a network of churches that provides overnight shelter for hundreds of unhoused individuals in the Charlottesville area each year. Since 2004, the group, officially known as People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry, has since 2004 operated cold-weather shelters across a rotating set of […]

Sean Tubbs | April 9, 2025

News

Several plans call for tunnels beneath area railways, but none under active consideration

This week, Norfolk Southern periodically shut down three at-grade railway crossings in Charlottesville to perform maintenance on the underlying tracks. While the closure was temporary, it raises questions about how to make it easier to get across the linear barrier of the railroad. In all, there is a distance of 4,500 feet where the railroad […]

Sean Tubbs | April 4, 2025

News Real Estate

A Christian congregation buys Dairy Road property for just under a million

In the past year and a half, at least three different Charlottesville congregations have purchased former churches for a permanent place of worship. Now, there is another example. In January, one non-denominational Christian group purchased a home and a large property on Dairy Road for its growing flock. The Church in Charlottesville paid $990,000 for […]

Sean Tubbs | April 2, 2025

News

Brownfield land in Albemarle should have solar on top by end of 2025

The 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act requires Dominion Energy to generate all of its power from renewable sources by 2045—but the company began looking at ways to add solar generation to its mix years earlier. Efforts to use some of the real estate above the now-closed Ivy Landfill have been underway since 2017, with multiple […]

Sean Tubbs | March 28, 2025

News Real Estate

Three housing projects seek to secure tax credits to finance future affordability

Virginia Housing, a state agency, has published a list of applications from developers seeking tax credits to cover the cost of building apartments guaranteed to be rented to people with lower incomes than the area median. The Internal Revenue Service allots a limited number of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for each state, and Virginia […]

Sean Tubbs | March 26, 2025

News Real Estate

Albemarle Supervisors deadlock on proposal to rezone 50 acres for mobile home park

A plan to build a 50-unit mobile home park on a portion of 50 acres in southern Albemarle County is dead after the Board of Supervisors deadlocked 3-3 on rezoning. They did so after a three-hour discussion and a public hearing during which housing advocates urged the county to move past decades of rural area […]

Sean Tubbs | March 19, 2025

News Real Estate

Albemarle supervisors allow for a slight expansion of Greenwood Grocery

Albemarle County has several rules intended to limit commercial development in the vast majority of its 726 square miles, including large stretches of highway. For instance, you can’t have a country store that’s more than 4,000 square feet in total size. In 2024, the owners of Greenwood Grocery on Rockfish Gap Turnpike learned that the […]

Sean Tubbs | March 12, 2025

News Real Estate

New neighborhood nearing construction in Scottsville after others falter

One purpose of urban planning is to determine appropriate places for people to live, but in many localities, elected officials have the final say. For instance, the Town of Scottsville Comprehensive Plan calls for around 1,000 people to reside in that community by 2040. “Growth of small towns more often occurs in periodic jumps, with […]

Sean Tubbs | March 5, 2025

News Real Estate

More trails in the works for the city and county

Unlike in some communities, there is no one entity responsible for building and maintaining trails in the Charlottesville area. The Rivanna Trails Foundation has a mission to “promote, create, and protect pathways, trails, and greenways in the Rivanna River Watershed that connect communities and people to one another and nature,” but it is a volunteer […]

Sean Tubbs | February 26, 2025

Feature News

In Albemarle, trails are in the works for people to walk (and bicycle) from here to everywhere

Construction of infrastructure for places to walk and bike in the United States can take a long time as the political world goes through different seasons and as competing priorities demand funding and attention. The Rivanna Trails Foundation, for instance, was created in 1992 to stitch together various stretches of trails and roadways to create […]

Sean Tubbs | February 26, 2025