Charlottesville Council and PC to hold two zoning work sessions before final draft 

The Charlottesville City Council and Charlottesville Planning Commission will hold another work session on the draft zoning code in CitySpace beginning at noon. Not at 5 p.m. like I originally had posted. (meeting info)

This certainly has been a year for zoning reform in Charlottesville. The Comprehensive Plan adopted in November 2021 calls for significantly higher amounts of residential density across the entire city. Take a look at one of the directives to support Goal 1 of the land use chapter. 

“Implement zoning changes needed to support the creation of more housing, including affordable housing opportunities, throughout the city,” reads strategy 1.3. 

The zoning update underway is intended to implement a Future Land Use Map which signals higher density across the city. The lowest intensity land use designation on that map is “General Residential” which calls for up to three units on all lots. Medium Intensity Residential would allow up to 12 and Higher Intensity Residential would allow more than 13. 

The first glimpse of how those aspirations would be implemented came in February when the first of three draft modules were released, as I reported at the time. This draft established new zoning districts to reflect the Future Land Use Map. 

Some brief highlights:

• Residential-A would allow three units per lot or four if the original structure is kept.
• Residential-B would allow six units per lot or 12 if every single new home is designated as affordable. As the process continued, this would become known as “double density” units.
• Residential-C would allow eight units per lot or 16 if all of them are designated as affordable. 

In projects over ten units, an inclusionary zoning mechanism would require ten percent to be designated as affordable. In the draft, developers would have the option to pay into the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund rather than build the units. 

Included in this release was a new zoning map. In addition to the three above, there are several new mixed-use districts. 

The second module was delayed and released on March 29. That’s the same day that Council and the Planning Commission held a work session. I wrote about that one, too.  At this meeting, Neighborhood Development Director James Freas acknowledged that “double-density” units would likely only be realized by nonprofit developers. 

Council and the Planning Commission held another work session on April 25. Freas again repeated that the process has been somewhat delayed. There was a discussion about whether the “double-density” provisions should remain in the draft. 

The third module was released in late May as I wrote at the time. This module established the rules for the zoning and what entity will have approval authority in the future. 

There was another joint work session on May 23, 2023 but I have been unable to review this one so far. You can watch it here. It is four hours long and there are no minutes of the meeting on the meeting portal. I hope to write up some of it by Wednesday. 

There was also a discussion at the June 13, 2023 Planning Commission meeting. You can watch that here. I hope to write some of that up by Wednesday, too. 

LPDA)

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