When Albemarle County supervisors adopted a new Comprehensive Plan last October, they retained a growth management policy intended to limit development in crucial areas. “The Natural Resources chapter of AC44 places importance on water resource protection, especially the public water supply system,” said county planner Jered Tate at an April 28 public hearing on a […]
There is a trend of late in Albemarle County for developers to return to the Community Development Department to amend previous rezonings and request that commercial space be swapped out for more residential units. For instance, in April the Board of Supervisors approved a request from Great Eastern Management Company to add more than 700 […]
The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia projects that more than 137,000 people will call Albemarle County home by 2040, or about 18,000 more than their estimate for July 2026. “Now is the time for managing that growth through activity center plans and multimodal transportation plans,” said Tonya Swartzendruber, a […]
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors opted not to proceed with a 15 cent increase on the personal property tax rate on April 15, but it did come up with an additional $2 million for the county’s nascent affordable housing investment fund. “What government does is it steps in and it identifies places where there […]
When Charlottesville City Council adopted a new set of zoning rules in December 2023, the idea was to make it easier for developers to construct housing units. That is proving not to be the case for LCD Acquisitions, a company that has filed plans for a seven-story building in Fifeville called The Mark that is […]
While staff in the City of Charlottesville’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services continue to process land-use applications under a new set of zoning rules, there are still many projects approved under the old rules waiting to be built. One of them is an apartment building that would be constructed close to downtown, where a […]
Aproposal from LCD Acquisitions to construct The Mark, a seven-story apartment building along the railroad tracks in Fifeville, can proceed under the city’s affordable housing fund rules, which allow the firm to pay less money into the fund. Charlottesville’s zoning code, adopted in December 2023, says projects designated as student housing are not required to […]
After more than two decades of preparation, Riverbend Development has secured several dozen acres of land in Albemarle’s southern growth area for a mixed-use community. “Land assemblage by our company began over 20 years ago and we’ve been in the active rezoning process for four years,” said Riverbend Vice President Ashley Davies. “Directing housing into […]
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. […]
Many public hearings for land use changes in Albemarle County are well-attended by nearby residents concerned about the impact of new development on their properties. Already in 2026, decisions on two rezoning requests have been deferred after the planning commission was persuaded by arguments from neighbors. On February 24, there was no opposition to a […]