The City has finalized its list of transportation proffer priorities in the Biscuit Run development south of Charlottesville in Albemarle County: City Council (www.charlottesville.org) decided at their February 5 meeting to request improvements for Old Lynchburg Road, synchronized lights in the city and money toward a Fontaine connector. Those recommendations have been forwarded to the County Planning Commission (www.albemarle.org), which will communicate their interests to Biscuit Run developers (principally, Hunter Craig) before their initial public hearing on March 27. Of what council has asked for, so far only the synchronized lighting is currently on the developer’s list of road proffers.
One would think such determinations might be divisive and protracted, but Council’s decision came at a midnight meeting and wasn’t advertised to the public. Council received no public input, no analytic staff report and no advisory from the City Planning Commission. Discussion lasted roughly 30 minutes.
Yet it was entirely legal and speaks less to Council’s bad intentions than to the odd nature of proffers—these pledges of spending for the public good can’t be asked for outright by localities. Instead of open and frank discussion, proffers demand an elusive courtship dance to signal from government to developer what they want in order to look favorably upon a project.
The ball is ultimately in the court of Biscuit Run developers to determine what proffers they will or won’t make. The fear among some government leaders is that if the cost of proffers goes too high, the developer will go by-right, building 1,400 units without spending a dime on infrastructure, schools or affordable housing.
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