Board of Supervisors Race: Focus on Rivanna District: The issues

The Rivanna District is the only Board of Supervisors race featuring two candidates with voting records on county development projects. That keeps Joseph, who is chair of the Planning Commission, from painting herself as an outside reformer, but it also keeps Boyd from calling her too inexperienced, and it makes for more nuanced differences on […]

Lessons on county housing policy

In 2004, Albemarle County adopted an affordable housing policy requiring that any future development make 15 percent of its units available to those with household incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income. This year, that policy was finally put to the test with the completion of the Avon Park development. Located […]

Pantops landowners ask for move

When the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors took up Clara Belle Wheeler’s land a few weeks ago to consider moving it out of the development area, they also discussed another parcel in the Pantops area—one whose owner wants in to the development area. It was brought to their attention in late August when John C. […]

Urban renewal start of chaos for displaced

During the 1960s, city planners and developers bulldozed hundreds of predominately African-American communities across the nation to make way for freeways, public buildings and private development. Such projects were grouped under the name “urban renewal,” though they displaced thousands of citizens nationwide. Charlottesville’s Vinegar Hill was one of those communities. Maurice Cox, UVA architecture professor […]

Rivanna Village: “Nobody likes change”

Previous C-VILLE coverage: Avinity antes upSupes approve first project to meet new proffer standards Rivanna village project goes forwardRezoning issue came down to private or public roads “Damn right it’s going to change things,” says Bernie Easton. He owns several buildings on Route 250 in the eastern part of Albemarle County, and is in the […]

Neighbors look to protect hospital houses

This August, the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association (MJNA) sent Martha Jefferson Hospital and the City Council a letter requesting that a series of houses the hospital has owned for decades and currently uses as office space be rezoned to residential from commercial.