The City of Charlottesville will help fund a study to define an optimal population for the Albemarle-Charlottesville community. A request for $11,000 by the Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population (ASAP) was unanimously approved by City Council at its August 6 meeting. The city’s contribution comes on the heels of a $25,000 appropriation from Albemarle County for the project. Both allotments are contingent upon ASAP raising the rest of the $90,000 needed to fund the first phase of its study.
"I like the notion of trying to get some feeling for realistically how many people could live here without things breaking down," says Mayor David Brown. "I think it makes sense to come up with something so we know what we’re aiming for, as opposed to how do we squeeze more people in."
According to ASAP President Jack Marshall, no other community in the United States has done deliberate research to identify its optimal sustainable population. ASAP’s project has generated what it calls a "national buzz" among like-minded groups, who have offered financial support and will be carefully watching this study for signs of success.
At the Council meeting, Councilor Kevin Lynch said he wanted to downplay the study’s stress on population control, something county supervisors have said, too. While Marshall said the money from both governments will only help identify the community’s sustainability size and what he called its "ecological footprint," he said ASAP will also attempt to highlight an optimal population size or range.
"Population is too important to be left to accident or simply to the wishes of the powerful who make a profit from growth," says Marshall. "We, as a community, have an obligation, if we give a damn about what we pass on to future generations, to look at these issues and talk about population like we talk about everything else."
Even though the city’s population (40,745, according to 2004 Census figures) has remained relatively static for about 35 years, ASAP argues that Charlottesville has a vital interest in community growth. The population of Albemarle County has doubled, "growing at a pace faster than India’s," in the words of an ASAP memo.
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