Charlottesville City Council to adopt manuals for development review, affordable housing 

The Charlottesville City Council will meet at 4 p.m. for a regular work session followed by an open meeting at 6:30 p.m. (meeting overview)

Charlottesville’s new Development Code will go into effect on February 19. Before that can happen, Council has to approve and adopt several policies intended to put teeth to the goal of increasing the amount of housing units guaranteed to be affordable to those with lower incomes. 

At the work session, Council will review the Development Review Procedures Manual, the Affordable Dwelling Unit Manual, and something called the HEAT Project. 

“H.E.A.T is the Housing Equity and Anti-Displacement Toolkit work actions undertaken by OCS staff that will be concentrated in specific zones of our community,” reads a presentation from the Office of Community Solutions, and not the genre-bending California band fronted by John Dwyer

The actual ADU Manual itself is included in the regular agenda session. (view the manual). 

The Planning Commission had a work session on the Development Review Procedures Manual on January 23. I’ll try to write that up before this meeting begins, but for more information take a look at the preview story I wrote two weeks ago.

The regular meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. with the consent agenda. Here are some of the items:

• There’s first of two readings to appropriate $45,073 from the city’s share of opioid settlement money on equipment for the Charlottesville Fire Department to administer naloxone nasal spray. (staff report)
• There is second reading of an appropriation of the FY23 surplus of $21.7 million. No one spoke at the public hearing at Council’s most recent meeting. (read my story) (staff report)
• There is second reading of a resolution to authorize City Manager Sam Sanders to spend $4 million to purchase 405 Levy and 405 Avon from the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. (read my story) (staff report)

Under action items, there are two resolutions for two separate requests to give up city-owned easements for natural gas lines. These are at the Hyland Park subdivision and Dunlora Park subdivision in Albemarle County.  

The next item is a rezoning under the old rules for a property at 108 Lankford Avenue from Single Family Small Lot Residential to Multi-family Residential. The Planning Commission had a public hearing on the item in November, but the developer’s representative sought a deferral of a vote. (read my story from then)

“The Planning Commission discussed the proposed preservation of two (2) of the three (3) existing buildings fronting on Lankford Avenue, which the Planning Commission found maintains the existing character and scale of the neighborhood,” reads some of the staff report for the February 5 meeting. “The Planning Commission discussed concerns with motorist behavior on Lankford Avenue and determined potential improvements would be most appropriately undertaken by the City through the Traffic Calming program.” 

No one spoke at the November public hearing and it was not reopened in January. If approved, the project’s density level will exceed what is called for in the new Development Code and the designation of Residential-A to match the Future Land Use Map designation of General Residential Density. 

Then Council will take up item #12 which is the adoption of the Development Review Manual. Something to note is that this item has a resolution titled “Resolution Overruling the Planning Commission’s Code of Virginia 15.2-2232 Determination on August 8, 2023” which links to the resolution to adopt the Development Review. That is related to the project that prompted Council to purchase nearly 24 acres of floodplain land, but it turns out the agenda is incorrect.

Item #13 is the adoption of the Affordable Dwelling Unit Monitoring and Procedures Manual, a 13-page document that can be reviewed here.

To recap, the new Development Code has two major affordability provisions. First, any project with more than ten residential units to designate ten percent of units as affordable as defined by the City of Charlottesville. Second, developers can get a height bonus if they exceed the requirements. 

Developers retain the option to pay a fee in-lieu of providing actual housing units. These funds could then be used to support the city’s efforts to help nonprofit developers cover the cost of constructions. The in-lieu fees much higher for for-sale units than rental units and they are to be updated annually. 

Anyone who builds affordable units will be required to provide material to the Office of Community Solutions every July 1. 

“The City reserves the right to inspect ADUs to ensure that the maintenance of ADUs meets acceptable standards of health and safety, and that the ADUs remain comparable with market-rate units in the same project,” reads Section 5.1 

What are the penalties for non compliance? That’s actually in Section 6.4 of the Development Code. 

“Noncompliance will result in the imposition of fines and penalties on the Property Owner as described in Section 6.4 Enforcement in the Charlottesville Development Code,” reads the draft Affordable Dwelling Unit Manual. 

When you actually go to look at the Development Code, 6.4 covers subdivision and streets. Division 5.4 handles enforcement and violations of the Affordable Dwelling Unit ordinance are not called out in Section 5.4.4. 

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 February 5, 2024 Week Ahead. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.