Information Charlottesville

A plan to guide future development on both sides of the Rivanna River has been reviewed by one of the two localities and will go before the other tonight. Albemarle Supervisors learned the details of the plan at their meeting on February 2.  Sandy Shackelford is the director of planning and transportation for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District and she provided a geographic reference. (read the draft)

“It’s the portion of the Rivanna River corridor that is 4.3 miles long,” Shackleford said. “It spans from Pen Park as the northern terminus to I-64 as the southern terminus.”

Shackelford said the most important priority that came out of the public engagement process was a focus on environmental protection and stewardship of the river. 

“The determination was that among the guiding principles, environmental protection had to be pulled out as the most important to first consider and only once environmental protection stewardship was addressed could the other guiding principles be considered to be equally important to each other,” Shackelford said. 

Environmental recommendations include identifying sensitive areas, retaining existing natural habitats, and continued improvements on stormwater management in the urban areas of both communities. 

City Council will take up the matter at their meeting tonight in the form of an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan.

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