Eze Amos
As Albemarle’s population continues to grow, the official policy is to concentrate development in about 5 percent of the county. Staff in the county’s Community Development Department are working on a new initiative to focus infrastructure to locate jobs, housing units, and other uses for what it refers to as activity centers.
“Weldon Cooper [is] telling us that within the next 20 years, we can expect 31,000 people in our community, and hopefully most of those will be in the development area, and a lot of them will be in these activity centers,” said Michael Barnes, director of planning, at the June 9 meeting of the Planning Commission.
The new Comprehensive Plan lists 22 activity centers and eight employment centers. The county only has enough resources to create a plan for one per year for the next three years.
“Each plan will provide a detailed look at a defined study area, incorporate collaboration with property owners and community stakeholders, and result in a list of county-led investments, catalyst projects, tools, and actions needed to achieve desired outcomes,” said county planner James Wilkinson.
During the next three years, staff recommends creating plans for South Pantops, the intersection of Rio Road and U.S. 29, and a portion of the Hollymead area.
The Hollymead activity center would be along U.S. 29 between Airport Road and Ashwood Boulevard. The Places29 Master Plan adopted in 2011 called for an extension of Berkmar Drive through the area and long-range planner Ben Holt said a new plan could provide an updated vision for an area that includes some land designated as rural area.
“The area could be ripe for a fresh planning effort to address land use, multimodal connectivity, new housing, and affordable housing, and to consider this location’s development area boundary in a coordinated manner,” Holt said.
A Rio/29 center plan would build off a small area plan adopted in 2018 that enabled a vision for a walkable, mixed-use urban center. Holt said Albemarle County has built off of that plan, with one example being a public-private partnership that led Home Depot to build a new store in a portion of the Fashion Square Mall.
“Constraints facing an activity center planning effort in this area include high through traffic volumes on Rio and 29, in particular limited transit resources, uncertain property owner interests and timelines for redevelopment of Albemarle Square,” Holt said.
Holt suggested the South Pantops area could be pursued third in part because coordination with the City of Charlottesville would be needed to help with river crossings. A plan here would include redevelopment of the Pantops Shopping Center through to State Farm Boulevard.
Barnes said not all the plans will look the same. Success will depend on working alongside property owners, unlike small area plans where coordination often did not occur.
“The idea here is really to try and identify opportunities that are in these areas and what investments can be made both in the private sector and the public sector,” Barnes said.
There will be further outreach to the public and other stakeholders before recommendations go before the Board of Supervisors, according to Barnes.
