Information Charlottesville

For over two years, Rhodeside & Harwell has been overseeing the Cville Plans Together initiative and have so far provided an affordable housing plan and a Comprehensive Plan for Council’s adoption. Now work is well underway on a rewrite of the zoning code. 

Now, Rhodeside & Harwell is seeking additional funding to complete the work and want additional resources for community engagement and project management. Staff is proposing using $188,810 from the capital projects fund. 

“Zoning represents a significant aspect of implementing the Comprehensive Plan and Affordable Housing Plan and is a detailed and complicated topic on which most members of the community have limited experience,” reads the staff report. “Our community engagement program will therefore need to be both highly explanatory/educational while at the same time giving community members the opportunity to express their preferences and priorities.”

Funding will also go to create a model to demonstrate the effects the new zoning ordinance will have on the housing market. The Future Land Use Map adopted in November increases the potential number of units for every residential property. 

“Zoning by itself does not lead to new housing development,” the report continues. “Development happens as a result of people pulling together the financing resources, and available land in response to market demand.”

I’ve also been tracking this topic in Charlottesville Community Engagement and making archival posts  in the Land Use – Charlottesville category on Information Charlottesville. This week I will post the February property transactions. You can review 13 months of anecdotal market summaries there as well. I’ll be watching the progress of 128 Shamrock with a lot of interest. This two bedroom house next to Scott Stadium is within the High Intensity Residential designation and is on the market for $799,000. So is its neighbor at 126 Shamrock Road. How much will these properties sell for?