Albemarle Planning Commission to take up proposed changes to land use fees

The Albemarle Planning Commission will meet at 6 p.m. in Lane Auditorium at the county office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)

There are a lot of moving parts in Albemarle County government. A Comprehensive Plan review is underway that is getting very little attention from information providers. There’s also a rewrite of the zoning underway that’s being overseen by the Berkley Group. The Berkley Group is also helping to review the county’s policies on siting utility-scale solar installations, as I wrote about earlier this month.

As part of their work on the zoning code, the Berkley Group is reviewing the fee structure for developers and property owners who seek approvals for land use changes and various permits. The idea is to make changes before a new “Community Development System” is launched. 

“The primary conclusion from the comparative analysis with benchmark communities is that Albemarle has far more fee categories than most localities – almost twice as many as most,” reads the executive summary.

The recommendations are to reduce the number of different categories from 312 to 148. 

“In the Water Protection Ordinance, for example, the number would go from 68 (existing) to 35 (proposed) fee categories,” the summary continues. 

This work is about the structure of fees and not their cost. Supervisors already approved increases on April 21, 2021. A goal is to recover at least half of the cost of staff-time to review applications. 

Both the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association and the Charlottesville Albemarle Developers Roundtable have already participated in stakeholder events and a survey had been posted to the Engage Albemarle website. 

The Planning Commission will also hold a public hearing on a request from the Maple Grove Church to rezone a third of an acre of land on Proffit Road from R-1 to R-4. This would allow for subdivision of the lot to separate an existing single-family residence from the property. 

“If the rezoning is allowed, the property will be sold in the future,” reads the narrative included in the application. 

At the end of the meeting there will be an update on the Comprehensive Plan process known as AC44. Here are two recent stories I wrote on the topic:

• Albemarle releases new AC44 documents on growth area expansion criteria, June 7, 2023
• Albemarle County releases results of Comprehensive Plan survey, June 30, 2023

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 July 10, 2023 Week Ahead. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.