New era for Charlottesville PC with no public hearings but two ECRB reviews

The Charlottesville Planning Commission will gather first at 5 p.m. in a conference room with no cameras for a discussion of the agenda. This is a practice that dates back before the pandemic that was put on pause in the Zoom era. Anyone can attend the discussion which takes place in the Neighborhood Development Services conference room in City Hall. (meeting overview)

The regular meeting is on camera and begins at 5:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. This one is a light one and there are no joint public hearings scheduled with City Council. That could become common as rezonings or special use permits for additional density are not expected to happen very often under the new Development Code.

The Planning Commission will be involved with review of land use applications for their compliance with the entrance corridor review guidelines. At this meeting, they’ll gavel in as the Entrance Corridor Review Board to review 2117 Ivy Road and to hold a preliminary discussion on VERVE Charlottesville. Both received approval from City Council last year as I wrote about at the time. 

The consent agenda includes a preliminary site plan for 501 Cherry Avenue, a Woodard Properties development approved by Council last year. 

“The Preliminary Site Plan proposes 69 residential units, 7,290 square feet of grocery store space, 15,745 square feet of other retail stores (non-specified), and 5,026 square feet of education facility/artistic,” reads the staff report. 

According to the site plan, Woodard Properties entered into a binding sales agreement with Piedmont Housing Alliance on October 6, 2023. The terms of the rezoning and special use permit set December 31, 2023 as a date for that agreement to be in place. 

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