Charlottesville Planning Commission to meet with an almost empty agenda

The Charlottesville Planning Commission will meet at 5 p.m. for a pre-meeting in the Neighborhood Development Services conference room. This is not recorded or televised. They then move to City Council Chambers at 5:30 p.m. for the regular meeting. (meeting info)

This will be the first meeting of the Charlottesville Planning Commission for new Commissioner Betsy Roettger, but there’s almost nothing on the agenda. 

The new Development Code has reduced many duties previously conducted by the Commission such as making recommendations on special use permits and rezonings. The Housing Advisory Committee has been playing a more direct role in establishing affordable housing policy. For instance, the Planning Commission’s input into a potential land bank has not yet been sought, but the HAC discussed the idea at its meeting in February. Those meetings are not recorded or televised. 

Additionally, Council did not ask the Planning Commission to review the Affordable Dwelling Unit Manual adopted in February. The Housing Advisory Committee, which contains three directors of three developers of low-income housing, provided extensive comment. 

Public hearings before the Charlottesville Planning Commission will likely now be very rare and the appointed body will do much of their business as the Entrance Corridor Review Board. At Council’s retreat in January, it was decided to no longer schedule joint public hearings with the Planning Commission. 

At the March 12, 2024 meeting of the Planning Commission, there is only one action item and it is on the consent agenda which means a discussion is not expected. This is for a final site plan for the Flint Hill Planned Unit Development that the Planning Commission has almost no influence on.

“Site plan approval is a ministerial function of Planning Commission in which no discretion is involved,” reads the staff report. “If this final site plan contains all required information, then it must be granted approval.”

There’s no work session scheduled on March 26, 2024 for the Planning Commission. In April, the Planning Commission will return to review a certificate for appropriateness for the Verve project near the University of Virginia. They’ll do that as the Entrance Corridor Review Board.\

The image in this post is a location map for the Flint Hill Planned Unit Development approved Council in August 2020. Credit goes to the City of Charlottesville.

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 March 11, 2024 Week Ahead. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.