Council concludes Development Code review with four-hour work session

The Charlottesville City Council held the final and longest in a series of work sessions on the new Development Code. The four elected officials and one appointed official spent four hours going through remaining topics before the public hearing is held on December 5 at 4 p.m. 

I am hopeful to through the entire four hours before Tuesday, but also have to make it through the November 13 work session at which they discussed housing affordability with Sunshine Mathon, a member of the Housing Advisory Committee who also happens to be the executive director of the Piedmont Housing Alliance. I’m hoping that will be ready on December 4.

There have been many changes to the draft zoning code since the Planning Commission held their public hearing on September 14. Many of these changes have been made at the behest of the HAC, which primarily consists of the directors of nonprofit housing groups each of whom has a stake in the outcome of the code. 

Here’s a piece of the tail end of the four-hour work session to give you a sense of how even some members of Council may not be sure about exactly what’s in the code that is the subject of the public hearing.

“Have we exhausted the topics as well as ourselves?” asked Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook.

“One last thing, did folks get this email from Dan Rosensweig, HAC Final Recommendations for the Zoning Code Update dated November 13, 2023?” asked City Councilor Brian Pinkston. 

HAC member Dan Rosensweig is also the president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville.

“We did discuss those at a previous work session and I believe our consensus was to incorporate pretty much all of them,” said Councilor Michael Payne. “There was one thing we didn’t discuss which was the height bonus but obviously we’re not going to get into detail on that tonight.” 

“So you’re saying this letter, we’ve essentially already discussed it?” Pinkston asked.

“It was incorporated into the discussion on November 13,” said James Freas, the city’s director of Neighborhood Development Services. 

Sharon Pandak, the city’s outside legal counsel on the Development Code and land use reform, also had a comment.

“We’re going to be providing you some further advice regarding those options that were set forth in that letter on Monday,” Pandak said. 

That discussion will be in closed session. 

The public hearing is on Tuesday. 

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 November 30, 2023 edition.

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