Monthly Archives: January 2023

Phase 2 of Albemarle Comprehensive Plan review underway

New year, new opportunity to write about the ongoing update of Albemarle County’s Comprehensive Plan. If you’re new to such a thing, the state code of Virginia requires every locality to create and maintain a plan “for the physical development of the territory within its jurisdiction and every governing body shall adopt a comprehensive plan for the territory under its jurisdiction.” 

The plan is to be reviewed every five years to see if it needs a major update. Some like Greene County have their Planning Commission take charge of the process and their current review is more modest. Others like Nelson County and Charlottesville hire consultants if the plan is either out of date or if the Planning Commission gets stuck.

But where’s Albemarle? Supervisors were briefed on the ongoing process at their meeting on January 11.

“The comp plan is being updated using a four-phased approach moving from big ideas and visioning to more details policies and action steps,” said Tori Kannellopolos, a senior planner with Albemarle County’s Community Development Department. “We just completed phase one where we focused on reviewing the growth management policy and building the framework to build the next phases of AC44.” 

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EDA officially agrees to local match for male fertility jobs

Update on Lewis and Clark loan 

The Albemarle Economic Development Authority has formally approved an agreement to make a local match for a state grant that will pay an Albemarle County start-up firm for each new job it creates.

PS-Fertility is investing $1.4 million to fit out a 4,000 square foot site at the new Albemarle Business Campus for its purposes. 

“It’s going to be a diagnostic testing company for male fertility,” said Kevin Combs, CEO of PS-Fertility. “There are going to be two Ph.D. doctors out of the University of Virginia that discovered some new fertility science around male sperm.”

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Judge Moon throws out former Charlottesville Police Chief’s suit against the city

Judge Norman K. Moon has thrown out a federal lawsuit filed by former Police Chief RaShall Brackney against the city of Charlottesville. Among other claims, Brackney had argued her firing in late summer of 2021 was racially motivated and was a violation of Virginia’s whistleblower statutes. 

The city had sought dismissal of the suit and Judge Moon agreed.

“Because Plaintiff does not allege sufficient facts to support these claims, Defendants’ motions to dismiss are granted,” reads the executive summary of the January 20 ruling.  (read the full ruling)


The 39-page ruling goes through all of the various counts against individuals named in the suit including Mike Wells of the Police Benevolent Association, various members of City Council, former City Manager Chip Boyles, former communications director Brian Wheeler, and assistant police chief Latroy ‘Tito’ Durrette. 

First page of Judge Norman K. Moon’s ruling dismissing the case (read the full ruling)

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment comes from the January 24, 2023 edition of the program. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.