AC44 work slowed down in late FY24, Planning Commission to get an update on July 9 

What is the future of Albemarle County? There are many answers to such a broad question, but for the purposes of planning, county staff have been embarked on an update of the Comprehensive Plan since early 2022 in a process known as AC44.

Two of four phases have been completed so far, but there appears to be a pause as we learn  from Planning Commissioner Karen Firehock at the end of the Planning Commission’s meeting on June 25. She’s a member of the Historic Preservation Committee, a group that has had difficult meeting quorum but met on June 24. 

“We’ve kind of delayed on the Comprehensive Plan work because there’s an overarching slowdown in terms of staff getting organized with the actions and trying to get that sorted before basic subcommittees like the Historic Preservation Committee wrestle with things so they kind of paused that,” Firehock said. 

The website for AC44 still lists spring as the time for a kick-off for phase 3 which is to create action steps that come from the public input in phase 2. Phase 2 was about establishing goals and objectives. 

Planning Director Michael Barnes said there will be an update at the next Planning Commission meeting on July 9. 

“We have a PowerPoint presentation that is almost finished,” Barnes said. “I will be bringing it to you… after much delay, at our first meeting in July.” 

Firehock asked if there would be anything substantive in the update, or if was just a snapshot of where the county is in the process. 

“Our intent is to put together a really good draft based on the outline that we’re going to present to you at our next meeting and then we’ll come back with a really solid first draft of the document and then work our way through it,” Barnes said. “That way you’ll have a little more context.” 

According to the website, Phase 3 will prioritize action steps and continue to refine the “planning toolkits” and a good place to learn about that may be my most recent AC44 story from November 2023. 

Want to know what Phase 2 was all about? Take a look at the most recent video on the AC44 website:

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 is from the July 4, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.