Funny how much difference a million dollars can make. It only took five minutes for the 124-unit Avinity project to garner the stamp of approval from the Albemarle Board of Supervisors at their June 13 meeting—thanks to a substantial increase in the amount of money developers agreed to pay the county for each unit built. The county will get $11,900 for each market rate unit (no money for the 19 units deemed “affordable”), instead of the $3,200 originally proffered. That brought the value of the cash proffer to $1.25 million from $336,000.
Avinity developers (who include Coran Capshaw) didn’t all of a sudden decide that they should be more generous—their decision comes after supes upped the ante in May on what they expect developers to pay to help offset the costs to the community for upgrades to roads, schools and fire stations. Avinity, planned for Avon Street Extended, is the first approved project to meet that new expectation.
Jay Willer of the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association says this sets a precedent of what supervisors want to see. “Everybody understands [developers] want to pay our fair share,” Willer says. “The question is, what’s fair? The other impact that the rising cost of proffers has is the ultimate cost of the house on the market.”
But later in the same meeting, supes made an exception for a project for up to 521 units. They approved a rezoning by a vote of 4-2 for the Rivanna Village at Glenmore development, despite the fact that its cash contributions are only $3,500 per single family detached house (the new policy calls for $17,500). Part of the justification was an 18.5-acre park, valued at $2.6 million. The staff also wrote in their report to the Board that “this project has responded over the last six years to numerous requests of the county and the Glenmore community.”
Tell the Board of Supervisors what you think about the cash proffer policy by going to:
http://www.albemarle.org/release.asp?ID=9671&releases=current
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
