Last week, Charlottesville celebrated its latest accolade as a city among the “Distinctive Dozen,” a title bestowed by the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation. With the award, we join the august company of other “distinctive” towns like Ellensburg, Washington, and West Hollywood, California. “I’m particularly pleased,” said Mayor David Brown, “because if I were to look back…one of the things I’m very proud of is creating a historic district around the University of Virginia,” referring to the Venable neighborhood.
 What price history: The city is considering adding to its existing historic districts. The new "conservation" districts, possibly in Fifeville, Woolen Mills, Belmont, Martha Jefferson, Starr Hill, Fry’s Spring and 10th and Page, would have less stringent requirements than "architectural design control" districts. |
All well and good. But might Charlottesville, a city with only 250 years under its belt—a sapling compared to the great oaks of Europe and Asia, a mere cell in the body of human history—become too historical? A significant portion of the city is already under “architectural and design control” (ADC) districts, meaning that the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) must oversee virtually every exterior alteration in that area. Now the city is discussing extending the historic districts into Fifeville, Woolen Mills, Belmont, Martha Jefferson, Starr Hill, 10th and Page and Fry’s Spring.
At a March 8 work session, the BAR began drafting guidelines for what would be termed “conservation” districts. Not as demanding of government oversight as the ADC designation, they still would add a layer to the review process that could hamper infill and redevelopment. City Council could chose to designate neighborhoods either type.
Kendra Hamilton, speaking after her announcement that she won’t seek re-election to City Council, told C-VILLE that she “agonized” over the decision to designate the Venable neighborhood historic (she voted for it). “I have my doubts about making the entire district a historic district, and that seems to be the path we’re headed down,” she said.
So while local leaders celebrate our latest honor, is there a fear of pickling Charlottesville with too much preservation? BAR member and developer Wade Tremblay says that he’s cautious of going too far. “My concerns are that an awful lot of the folks that own property in what may be future conservation districts don’t understand what it means to them,” Trembaly says. “It’s a lot of, for lack of a better word, governmental red tape that they have to jump through. It runs contrary to what a lot of people think, that they own their property and can do with it what they will.”
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
