My entire career has been spent in a quest to improve civics education by writing about what happens at the local government level. At so many points in my professional career, editors and other reporters have expressed a distaste for anything that seeks to educate the public on how things work. Four and a half years ago I took a risk to go independent and here we are.

This 288th edition of the Week Ahead newsletter continues the trend with just under 4,000 words that let you know about some of what’s happening this week in local government in and around the Charlottesville area. 

Here are some of the highlights: 

• On Tuesday, Albemarle County’s Planning Commission will get another piece of the Comprehensive Plan puzzle and will hold two public hearings on land use applications. One is for an automotive repair garage in the rural area, a use vehemently opposed by neighbors.
• On Wednesday, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee will hear about a request to rezone 24 acres of rural area land to allow for expansion of a mobile home park to add 53 new units.
• Staff in Nelson County are not recommending pursuit of a restriction on through trucks on Route 151 in part because the idea may not meet one of the necessary criteria. On Thursday, Supervisors will take up this matter and will have a public hearing on whether allow residential units at a commercial building in Lovingston. 
• The Louisa Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Thursday on changes to the county’s zoning including the removal of the possibility of residential zoning in commercial districts. They’ll also consider amending the master plan for the Cutalong at Lake Anna resort development. 
• Fluvanna’s Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Tuesday to remove a land use tool that allows for clustered development in the rural area and will consider other zoning text amendments. A Comprehensive Plan update is underway to recommend more protections against rural area development. 
• The Virginia Department of Transportation will hold a design public hearing Wednesday for a 0.2 mile extension of Berkmar Drive to increase its worth as a road parallel to U.S. 29. 
• There is a meeting in Greene County, but the details will be in the next newsletter because the listing was not in the usual space.

If you have questions, please ask me directly or ask in the comments. Living in a civilization is complex and it is my conviction to keep trying to make public policy as easy to understand as I can. 

Thanks to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their continued support of this newsletter. 

Monday, November 11, 2024

Government offices are closed across the nation to commemorate Veterans Day. I’ll have more on that in tomorrow’s newsletter. 

One of Charlottesville’s calendars notes there is a meeting of the Police Civilian Oversight Board meeting at City Space at 6:30 p.m. Is this an oversight?

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Greene Supervisors to hold six public hearings tomorrow night

What happens if a local government holds a public meeting and no one knows about it because they’re now using new software? In yesterday’s Week Ahead I stated “there does not appear” to be a meeting in Greene County but the Board of Supervisors meet at 5:30 p.m. in the administration building at 40 Celt Road in Stanardsville. 

Greene County now uses the CivicPlus platform to manage meetings, but not everything was plugged in yesterday. Now it is and we can get back to work. There is a marked improvement in the quality of how the information is presented. Now if only they can install a better recording system to capture what is said more effectively. (meeting overview)

There are six public hearings.

• The first is for a special use permit for a church and private educational institution at 3004 Greene Edge Lane. That’s land slated in the Future Land Use Map as being mixed-use residential. The church would have no more than 400 congregants at a time and there would be no more than 150 students enrolled in the proposed school. This will be the new home of Riverstone Church of Charlottesville. 
• The second is on a proposal to increase the fee to revalidate properties in Land Use taxation from $15 to $60. (staff report)
• The third is on a proposal to raise the eligibility threshold for tax exemptions for disabled and elderly persons from $27,000 a year to $35,000 a year. (staff report)
• The fourth is to carry over a $6.9 million surplus from previous budgets to the current fiscal year. (staff report)
• The fifth will be to appropriate $1.54 million in additional funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia for at risk students. (staff report)
• The sixth is for a public hearing on increasing connection fees for water and sewer as well as making them mandatory if a property is along a service line. Much of this information has been presented. Greene County took over this service from the Rapidan Service Authority in June 2023 and inherited a bit of a mess. Rates don’t cover the cost to support the system. (presentation)

Under other business, Supervisors will approve the legislative program from the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. 

(image) Some of the capital items required for Greene County’s water and sewer system (Credit: Greene County)

Fluvanna PC to hold public hearing on removal of rural cluster subdivision 

The Fluvanna Planning Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. in the Morris Room in the County Administration Building in Palmyra for a work session on the capital improvements plan. Department heads appeared before the PC at their October 8, 2024 work session. (agenda packet)

The regular meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and there are a lot of items on the agenda.

• The first is a request for a sidewalk waiver for the Rivanna Bend development. From the minutes of the October 8 meeting, we learn that some existing residents are not happy with the proposed new homes. The total area for this development is 76.71 acres and the cluster development would have 11.5 acres in residential lots, 1.5 acres in right of way, and the rest in open space. There would be 21 residential lots and the developer argues that sidewalks would not be keeping with the rural character. Instead, a walking path would be constructed. (learn more)
• The second is a site development plan for West River Self Storage, a proposed 39,800 square foot development across five buildings. They are also seeking a sidewalk waiver. (learn more)
• There will be three resolutions to advertise public hearings for three future zoning text amendments. These are for the definitions of “family day home,” “major and minor subdivision,” and “front yard.” For the first one, the proposal is to lower the number of children in a family day home from six to five.  For the second one, the idea is to clarify that no more than five lots can be created from a parent lot. 
• There will also be a discussion of the Comprehensive Plan under unfinished business. Supervisors recently adopted an update of the plan but work has already begun on another update to try to increase rural area protection. The removal of rural cluster subdivisions follows the spirit of that update. 

There are three public hearings on other zoning text amendments. 

• One is related to rural cluster neighborhoods, which are currently allowed in Fluvanna County by-right. These allow for slightly more sense development in the rural area by clustering units in one location to preserve open space. Virginia Code requires localities to offer this option for areas with a growth rate higher than percent ten percent between Census counts. That no longer applies to Fluvanna so the idea is to remove the land use tool. (learn more)
• The second is to add definitions for “Pet Crematorium” and “Animal Training Facility” to potential uses in Fluvanna County. (learn more)
• The third is to clarify the definition of a phrase in the section on tarp screening. (learn more)

Albemarle PC to hold another AC44 work session, two public hearings

There was a pause in community engagement on Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan update over the summer while staff tweaked the structure of the document. I’m attempting to cover as much of the discussion as possible and the next story will be a review of the Board of Supervisors’ review last week of the Future Land Use Map and land use designations. 

The next story after what will be on the work session related to the rest of the Development Areas land use chapter. Staff wants feedback on potential incentives to build structured parking, a potential reduction or elimination of parking requirements, and the balance between efficient use of the Development Areas, quality of life in those areas, and the environmental stewardship that comes with continuing to have a strict growth area boundary. (staff memo)

There are two public hearings.

The first is for a special use permit to allow a public garage to be constructed in the rural area on property near the intersection of Virginia Route 20 and Coles Rolling Road. 

“On this project site, the user would like to fill the needs of surrounding residents by providing an automobile repair shop,” reads the applicant’s narrative prepared by the Timmons Group. “By making available the services associated with the requested use, the public garage would benefit the community by providing employment opportunities and providing auto repair service to those in need.”

This area is not considered to be one of Albemarle’s “crossroads communities.” Here’s the description in the staff report which sounds like a fairly active area. 

“Across Scottsville Road to the west are undeveloped and residential properties,” reads the report. “The Keene Post Office and the Piedmont Veterinary Service clinic are also located to the west and front on Esmont Road and Plank Road, respectively. Across Coles Rolling Road to the north is the Green Mountain Country Store, which includes retail sale of convenience goods and four gas pumps. To the north/northeast are residential properties as well as the Keene VDOT Area Headquarters facility.” 

This project went before the Planning Commission on March 12 and a dozen speakers at the time expressed concern about the use. The applicant requested a deferral and the application was reduced slightly in size.

Opposition, however, continues.

“We all purchased our properties because we wanted to escape development,” writes nearby resident Susan Love. “Are you pushing it on us because of political pressure?”

“There are only 149 residents of Keene and only another 591 in close by Esmont,” writes Paula and Jerome Beazley. “These residents are not in need of these services.”

And so on. 

The second public hearing is for what’s called the Archer North development. This is on the same land where a previous development called RST Residences was approved but not built because the developer could not make it work financially after agreeing to guarantee affordability for many of the units. That project set aside 119 units whereas this one only offers 45 affordable units. 

Charlottesville PC to hold another uneventful meeting

Rezonings and special use permits are now very rare in the City of Charlottesville as the new Development Code increased the amount of building space allowed by-right. That means the Planning Commission has a lot less to do. 

That’s the case at another meeting Tuesday where there is very, very, very little on the agenda. They’ll gather at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers to give reports, approve the consent agenda, and then vote on an electronic meeting policy. 

They also meet at 5 p.m. in a meeting that is not televised. Will that conversation be more substantive than the one that’s on camera? 

The Planning Commission will meet on November 26 for a work session on the capital improvement program for the FY26 budget. They had a preliminary discussion in late September. 

The December 10 meeting does have one potential item of interest. The Planning Commission has more relevance when they meet as the Entrance Corridor Review Board and they’ll review 1185 Seminole Trail. That’s a 250-unit development of the Hibachi Grill site just to the south to another redevelopment next door in Albemarle County.  

I still have to go through the remaining hour and fifteen minutes of the recent joint meeting between the Albemarle and Charlottesville Planning Commissions where they got a briefing on the Resilient Together initiative. Did they talk about any of the many areas where there might be a benefit of mutual review such as these two properties on Seminole Trail? I’m going to listen through, but I suspect the answer is no.  Here’s the first half of the story.  And here’s my C-Ville Weekly story from July 2024 on the two developments.

Despite very little action on the agenda, the packet for the meeting is 232 pages long. Here’s what is on the consent agenda and the links should go to that item:

• There is a subdivision approval for Piedmont Housing Alliance’s 50-unit development at 1025 Park Street. (learn more)
• There is also a site plan for the above project. The Planning Commission must approve the project if it meets all technical guidelines, hence its appearance on the consent agenda. (learn more)

In other meetings:

• Albemarle’s Police Citizens Advisory Committee meets at 9 a.m. in Room C in the county’s office building at 1600 5th Street. There’s no agenda at publication time. (meeting info)
• The Albemarle Board of Zoning Appeals will meet at 2 p.m. in Lane Auditorium of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. On the agenda is an appeal of staff decision on a variance for a property at 720 Maranatha Lane. This is actually pretty interesting and I may have a further preview in the next regular newsletter. (meeting info)
• Charlottesville’s Sister Cities Commission will meet in CitySpace in the small conference room. They will discuss two new projects as well as the appointed body’s strategic plan for the next five years. There will also be an update on the grant application process for 2025. (meeting packet)

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Crozet CAC to review rezoning request for expand Beaver Hill mobile home park

Albemarle expects over 150,000 residents by the year 2050 and one of the biggest questions is where everyone will live. Another is how to preserve existing affordable housing and how to expand the number of subsidized units? 

Those questions are answered application by application. 

Shimp Engineering is leading the way on a rezoning for 24 acres from Rural Area to Residential-4 to allow for expansion of the Beaver Hill Manufactured Home Park to add 53 additional units to have a total of 100. The property is technically in the rural area.

The Crozet Community Advisory Committee will have a community meeting for these applications at the November meeting at 2020 Library Avenue in Crozet. This begins at 7 p.m.  (meeting info)

Design public hearing for extension of Berkmar Road to Airport Road

There is often a long time between when the Virginia Department of Transportation holds a public hearing on the design and location of a road improvement and when the project actually goes to construction. 

Such a public hearing will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the University of Virginia Research Park at North Fork for a road connection that when made will make it possible to drive from that research park to Twenty-Ninth Place. 

“[The] project will construct a 0.2 mile long two-lane connector road on new alignment between the existing terminus of Route 1403 (Berkmar Drive Extended) north to Route 649 (Airport Road), north of Hollymead Town Center in Albemarle County,” reads the announcement on the VDOT page. “A two-lane hybrid roundabout will be constructed at the northern end of the project to connect Berkmar Drive with Airport Road and Lewis and Clark Drive.”

This project is being sought through VDOT’s revenue-sharing program where localities split the cost of projects up to $20 million. 

The University of Virginia Foundation paid $6 million for the extension of Lewis and Clark Drive to Airport Road, a project that opened in 2020. 

In other meetings:

• The James River Water Authority will meet at 9 a.m. in the Morris Room in the Fluvanna County Administration Building at 132 Main Street in Palmyra. (meeting agenda)

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Nelson Supervisors to learn why staff recommends against a through-truck restriction on Route 151

The five-member Nelson County Board of Supervisors meets on a Thursday instead of a Tuesday. That’s because the Virginia Association of Counties is holding their 90th annual conference in Hot Springs in Bath County through Tuesday.  They meet at 2 p.m. in the General District Courtroom at the Courthouse in Lovingston. 

After the public comment period, approval of the minutes, and approval of a budget amendment, there are four presentations. 

• The first is from the Virginia Department of Transportation and there does not appear to be anything available in the packet. 
• The second is on the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s legislative program for 2025. (learn more) 
• The third is on the Storm Ready Certification from the National Weather Service. There is nothing in the packet. 
• The fourth is on the renovation of the Nelson Heritage Center by the Virginia Department of Health. The Nelson County Health Department will close at its existing location on November 12 and will reopen at the new location on November 22. 

Under new and unfinished business, there will be a report from the Blue Ridge Health District and a request to carry over $58,667.57 in surplus funds from the previous fiscal year. (learn more)

The presentation includes a snapshot of information from the 2025 Community Health Assessment that is underway. This is known as MAPP2Health and a hundred surveys were completed in Nelson County. 

There will also be a request for an interest fee loan of $55,000 from the Montebello Volunteer Fire Department to pay for five Self Contained Breathing Apparatus and 15 cylinders for firefighting operations. (learn more)

In an October 16, 2024, the president of the Nelson County Emergency Services Council explained that the existing equipment is out of date and out of synch with gear used in surrounding localities. 

“We have been trying for several years to get all agencies on the same equipment, as possible, as items had to be updated, to aid in mutual support,” said Daniel T. Johnson. 

There will also be a discussion of local authority to reduce the speed limit in business or residential districts lower than 25 miles per hour. This relates to a request to reduce speeds traveling through Gladstone, an ability gained in the 2024 General Assembly through HB1071. For anyone interested in lowering the speed limit, this might be worth watching. (learn more)

Then there will be an update on the through-truck restrictions being considered for Route 151. Staff have put together a few alternatives and evaluated them against four criteria that determine whether a restriction can be made. They don’t recommend pursuing because one of the criteria allow restrictions on local roads or minor collectors, and Route 151 and Route 6 are both functionally classified as minor arterials. (learn more)

The afternoon session will end with a closed session at which litigation against Region 2000 over a landfill will be discussed, as well as the siting agreement for Savion Solar. That refers to the potential payment the county might be paid for the generation of electricity. 

There is only one item on the evening agenda and that’s public hearing on a special use permit allowing for residential use at 622 Front Street. That property is zoned B-1. The Planning Commission recommended approval on October 23 but added the condition that the residences cannot be used for short-term rentals. (learn more)

Public hearing on many zoning changes before Louisa Planning Commission

The Louisa County Planning Commission will meet at 5 p.m. for a work session followed by a regular meeting at 7 p.m. They meet in the Louisa County Public Meeting Room. (work session overview) (regular meeting overview)

During the work session, the Planning Commission will discuss proffers which are conditions that can be put on an approval of a rezoning or a special use permit. There’s no specific information in the packet about what they will discuss. 

There will also be a further discussion of amendments to the zoning code. There was a work session on October 28 at which it was decided that proposed amendments to the term agricultural operation would not be made at this time. Changes include a removal of the possibility of allowing residential in commercial zoning districts. 

“The amendments proposed at this time, reflect the County’s commitment to ensuring that the Zoning Code remains responsive to current needs, reduces unnecessary regulation, and aligns with State and Federal laws,” reads the staff report.

The work session also will include a discussion of the focus areas for Louisa’s growth areas. This was deferred from the October 28 meeting. 

In the regular meeting there are three public hearings. 

• The first is for a conditional use permit for a construction yard for On Demand Concrete at the intersection of U.S. 33 and Virginia Round 22. (staff memo)
• The second is to amend and renew a conditional use permit for a bed and breakfast at Bowood Barn on Tisdale Road to allow more attendees at weddings and other events. (staff memo)
• The third is on the changes to the land development regulations discussed at the work session. (staff memo)

Under new business, there will be a discussion of waivers for private roads in the Cutalong Resort Development as well as an amendment to the master plan for how 891 units will be constructed. 

“The master plan amendment seeks to enhance the community by increasing the number of estate lots, condos, villas, and townhomes, while reducing the number of executive and cluster lots, maintaining a total of 891 residential units,” reads the staff report. “This updated plan prioritizes pedestrian and bicycle accessibility, includes additional recreational spaces, and enhances community service areas to support a destination-focused resort community.” 

In other meetings:

• The Rockfish Valley Community Center will host the third annual Care Fair with over 30 exhibitors “offering demonstration of products, written material, and conversations for persons needing information or assistance as they age or care for a family member.” The Blue Ridge Medical Center’s Mobile Clinic will offer COVID-19 and flu vaccines. There will also be presentations on long-term care, brain health strategies, and legal planning. The event lasts from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. (learn more)
• The Albemarle Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee will meet at 4 p.m. in Room 246 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. There will be an update on the Comprehensive Plan as well as other issues. (learn more)
• The Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority meets at 4:45 p.m. in Room 235 at 401 McIntire Road. They’ll discuss a donation as well as a determination on whether an accessory apartment is allowed. (meeting info)
• The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will have a work session at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers. There’s no agenda posted on their website. (meeting info)
• The Places-29 North Community Advisory Committee will meet at North Fork, Building 4, at 994 Research Park Boulevard. They’ll get an update from the Albemarle County Police Department  as well as a discussion of what topics the group might pursue in 2025. (meeting info)
• The Charlottesville Police Civilian Oversight Board meets in CitySpace at 6:30 p.m. This is likely the appropriate and actual meeting. There’s no agenda at publication time. (meeting info)

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This post was contributed by Sean Tubbs. Sean is a journalist working to build a new information and news outlet centered around Charlottesville and Virginia. In 2020, he launched a daily newscast and newsletter and also created a semi-regular podcast on the pandemic.

Support for Sean’s “Week Ahead” update comes from The Piedmont Environmental Council.