It has now been two years since Albemarle adopted a plan to increase the amount of housing units in the county. Housing Albemarle encourages the development of housing types other than single family homes to meet demand for places to live.
“Albemarle County’s housing will be safe, decent, and sanitary; available to all income and age levels; located primarily in the Development Areas; and available equally to current and future County residents,” reads the overarching goal of Housing Albemarle. (read the plan)
At the time of the vote on July 7, 2021, Supervisors did not approve a mandate that 20 percent of new units be designated as affordable, though signaled they would do so in the future.
“The policy itself got put on hold until incentives could be designed to help the developers meet what the policy states needs to happen,” said Albemarle Supervisor Ned Gallaway. He chairs the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership.
Another step that is delayed is to establish a minimum affordability period of 30 years for rental units and 40 years for sale units
There have been multiple work sessions on the topic as I’ve covered previously. This is not an exhaustive list of all of the sessions to date.
- During Housing Albemarle discussion, Supervisors briefed on 2020’s building boom, March 25, 2021
- Albemarle Supervisors discuss incentive package for housing, February 22, 2022
- Albemarle Supervisors discuss incentives for housing, May 19, 2022
- Albemarle Supervisors briefed on grant program to incentivize creation of below-market units, February 15, 2023
- Albemarle Supervisors hold lengthy work session on proposed affordable housing ordinance, April 25, 2023
Admittedly I need some help with these headlines.
The Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership is poised to help with the creation of incentives or a grant program or something that would allow that mandate to be finally enacted. The entity run by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District will hold a roundtable on July 12 at the North Fork Discovery Park. The public is allowed to attend and make public comment.
“Over the last few weeks we solicited input from partnership members about who we should invite so we selected developers, nonprofit developers,” said Ian Baxter, a planner with the TJPDC. “We tried to cast a new as wide as possible.”
Attendees will be asked to read through the Housing Albemarle document in advance and will be asked to fill out a survey.
“Basically their top three developer incentives,” Baxter said.
The roundtable will result in a memo that will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors to help with their deliberations.
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