Cville Area Land Use: Week Ahead for November 25, 2024

Posted on by Sean Tubbs

You might think there would be no meetings this week in local and regional government. After all, there is the holiday on Thursday and Wednesday is more or less a wash. Yet, there are events happening and in the spirit of producing this edition more quickly, let’s get right to them:

  • The Charlottesville Planning Commission will discuss the city’s draft capital improvement program, but not before having a closed session related to “pending litigation”
  • Albemarle’s Planning Commission will review the details of moving the county’s water protection ordinance into the zoning code
  • Albemarle’s Historic Preservation Committee will discuss what they want to see in the new Comprehensive Plan
  • There are a lot of reports for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s board meeting Monday but there’s little on the agenda
  • The development of Albemarle’s FY26 budget continues with a meeting of the audit committee 
  • There are no meetings in Fluvanna County, Greene County, Louisa County, or Nelson County. 

Thanks as always to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their continuing support for this look ahead at upcoming meetings. This is the 290th such installment.

Monday, November 25, 2024

Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to get a series of updates

What happens if you have a public meeting and no one except a handful of people on a list are aware it’s coming? That’s the case of the regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Commissioners for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. 

This meeting is not listed on either of Charlottesville’s calendars nor is it listed as upcoming in the city’s BoxCast streaming platform. However, the 6 p.m. meeting is on the CRHA calendar though there are no materials for the meeting posted.  

Yet, there is a meeting because there is an agenda that I’ve posted to cvillepedia. There are no resolutions for the Commissioners to consider but there are a series of updates.  I’ve uploaded those to cvillepedia as well. 

The report from Executive Director John Sales will be given verbally. 

In recent years, the CRHA has become very ambitious as they seek to modernize their housing stock and as they continue to acquire more property. Much of the funding comes from local dollars including $5 million for the purchase of the Dogwood housing portfolio in the spring of 2023.  They also are working on a plan to relocate their headquarters to the Downtown Mall on property purchased earlier this year for $2.65 million.

Click through for a larger image (Credit: Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority)

Albemarle Audit Committee to meet

Last week, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors had a work session on the five-year financial plan that gives an overview of what county budget staff anticipate might happen in the short-term and mid-term. I’ll have a story about that coming out later this week. 

But we are in the early days of budget season and Albemarle’s Audit Review Committee will meet at 11 a.m. in Room 241 the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. This body is made up of two members of the Board of Supervisors and two members of the School Board.  

The purpose of the meeting is “to review the FY24 Audit Results and discuss any future concerns, in addition to providing an overview of the Tyler ERP Financial Management System, and an update on the County’s Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Program.”

If you want an example of how these meetings operate, take a look at one from last year:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/pYxWX-XOC_s?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

Albemarle Historic Preservation Committee to discuss AC44 recommendations

The Albemarle Historic Preservation Committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. in Room 241 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (agenda) (meeting info)

One of the items on the agenda is a discussion of the Comprehensive Plan and action steps that may be requested by the committee.  Staff made alterations to the process this year and are now slowly rolling out drafts. This would appear to be feedback for the Historic, Scenic, and Cultural Resources Chapter which is not yet available. 

There’s a draft goal statement but it is unclear from the agenda whether this is from staff or the committee itself. 

“Albemarle County will recognize, celebrate and promote awareness of its rich and extensive historic, cultural, and scenic resources,” reads the draft statement. “The County will actively work to identify, preserve and protect these valuable resources. The stories of the people, places and events that define the County’s identity will be honored and shared for current and future generations.”

So far, the review of the AC44 draft has focused on land use and the growth management policy. Here are some recent stories:

I’ll have two more out in the next week. This work is the only source of thorough communication about land use planning. I’m very grateful to all of the supporters helping to cover the cost. 

There will also be a discussion of the monthly demolition report.

The AC44 process is in the third phase. This is a snapshot of the website saying where we are in the roll-out of the draft chapters. Take a look! (Credit: Albemarle County) 

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Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Charlottesville Planning Commission to hold closed session on pending litigation, review CIP

Earlier this month, Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell issued a ruling in the case White v. Charlottesville, a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the city’s new Development Code.

The ruling removed both the City of Charlottesville and the Commission Planning Commission from the case leaving the Charlottesville City Council as the sole defendant. 

“The Virginia Supreme Court [has] ruled that the governing body are the right and necessary parties to that review or zoning appeals of a decision of the board,” Worrell wrote. “In our case, the governing body is the City Council.” 

The Charlottesville Planning Commission will begin their work session Tuesday at 5 p.m. with a closed session where “pending litigation” is to be discussed. Is this White v. Charlottesville? If so, can they meet in closed session for a lawsuit they are no longer party to? (meeting agenda)

The meeting is in CitySpace in a room that can be closed to the public for a closed session. But is there another lawsuit? I searched the Charlottesville Circuit Court records and don’t see the PC named as a defendant. Admittedly, Virginia’s legal system is difficult to access online if you are not a member of the Bar association. 

After the closed session, there will be a work session on the draft capital improvement program (CIP) for the next five years. This is a section of the FY2026 budget that must go through the Planning Commission with a public hearing scheduled in December. 

“The draft CIP contains revenues and expenses totaling $31,412,635 in FY 2026 and $185,771,507 for the 5-year (FY 2026 – 2030) plan,” reads the staff report penned by Krisy Hammill, the city’s director of budget and performance management. 

Those numbers could change between now and March 4 when City Manager Sam Sanders will present his recommended budget. This year, Sanders is trying to get Council involved earlier in the process as I’ve reported. 

The legend for the draft CIP included in the meeting packet has two colors for highlights. Yellow means items that are still under discussion and green “reflects a change from FY25 – FY 29 plan.” 

Some items to note:

  • The revenue session includes money in future years that come from previous surpluses. For instance, the CIP assumes use of nearly $2 million in FY2027 from the ongoing CIP contingency fund. This and a FY2029 allocation of $716,749 come from a previous year. 
  • One of the items in yellow related to funding to city schools for repair to heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) systems. 
  • The draft CIP anticipates $1 million a year for climate action initiatives for the first four years of the plan, but FY30 has no allocations planned at this time. Renovations of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library’s central branch are programmed at $857,109 in FY27 and $9,676,141 in FY29. 
  • One of the items in green is for new sidewalks. The amount shown for FY26 is $910,000 and then dipping to $776,000 in FY27. Then the amount increases to around $1.19 million in both FY28 and FY29. 
  • The amount for small area plans has increased to $150,000 a year. These are intended to help provide more guidance on the implementation of the Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan and the Development Code. 
  • The amount of traffic signal infrastructure replacement is set at $250,000 for FY26 but this increases to $2 million in FY27 and $3 million in FY28. 

There are no big changes to the section on affordable housing but the budget staff have restored the practice of listing out which projects are bondable and which ones are not. Bondable projects are those that can be paid for through debt service and these only apply to projects that will continue to be owned by an entity of local government. 

The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority is the only eligible entity and there is a total of $18 million going to CRHA over five years. That includes $3 million in FY26 in a category that just reads “public housing redevelopment” as well as $15 million for redevelopment of Westhaven over a three year period.

Non-bondable projects means that direct payments of cash go to the entity actually building the infrastructure. There are no major additions to the last year except for the yearly payout to the coalition of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and the Piedmont Housing Alliance for their purchase of the Carlton Mobile Home Park. The amount listed in the draft CIP is $7,793,000 over five years. Council agreed in early August to provide a forgivable loan of $8.7 million to the Habitat Carlton Alliance. 

A line item for some but not all of the non-bondable affordable housing projects that City Council will help fund. In the case of the Piedmont Housing Alliance, the city’s contribution is just one part of a revenue mix intended to bring rental costs at certain price points. (Credit: City of Charlottesville)

Albemarle County PC to review potential addition of water protection to zoning code 

Albemarle County is reviewing its Comprehensive Plan and its zoning code concurrently and it has been hard for me to keep up with the latter.

For background, a Comprehensive Plan is intended to be an aspirational document that gives a broad overview of what a county’s locality wants to happen. The zoning code is the actual set of regulations used by staff to determine what can happen on a property. 

But the zoning code is not the county’s only ordinance that governs land use decisions. There is also the water protection ordinance and Supervisors approved a recommendation to improve stream health in December 2021. This is known as the Stream Health Initiative. 

“Recommendation #1 from the SHI, and the first SHI project undertaken by the County, is a proposal to move the County’s existing riparian-buffer regulations from the Water Protection Ordinance (WPO) to the Zoning Ordinance (ZO),” reads the staff report for the work session.

One outcome is that the county may be able to do more to prevent land disturbance within riparian buffers which are vegetated areas to naturally filter out pollution and sediment from entering the watershed. 

“This approach resolves difficulties in accurately enforcing riparian-buffer regulations caused by the lag between movements in stream systems and the updating of zoning maps, and by incomplete stream mapping,” reads the staff report. 

This is highly technical. There will surely be opponents who argue that this will take away property that could be farmed or developed. Will there be any proponents from local advocacy groups? 

There are two public hearings. 

  • The first is for a special use permit to allow for outdoor sales and display at the Carter Machinery equipment rental store at 721 Rio Road W. (staff report)
  • The second is for a special use permit to allow for an 11-acre utility scale solar project near the intersection of Buck Island Road and Virginia Route 53 in the Scottsville Magisterial District. (staff report)
More of the specifics for the work session on implementing one of the recommendations from Albemarle’s Stream Health Initiative (Credit: Albemarle County)

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

UVA Health System Board subcommittee to meet in closed session

Under Virginia law, public bodies can go into closed session for all manner of reasons. The Finance Working Group of the Health System Board will meet publicly at 10 a.m. and immediately invoke the appropriate motion. 

“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss strategic financial, investment, facility needs, market considerations, growth initiatives and partnerships in light of market and regulatory issues for UVA Health, specifically, potential joint ventures and market expansion opportunities,” reads the meeting announcement. 

More details on the closed session notice for the Finance Working Group of the University of Virginia Health System Board

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.