Editorial note: The source material for this report is the August 27, 2024 meeting of the Albemarle Planning Commission. Information was current at the time of its original reporting in the September 4 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and was reposted here on September 12, 2024.
Staff in Albemarle’s Department of Community Development continue to work on a reformatted version of the county’s Comprehensive Plan. This summer, both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors were told of changes to the way the state-mandated review will be completed.
The Planning Commission will get a portion of the document at its meeting on October 8.
“We’ve sort of made the decision to not provide the whole entire plan,” said Albemarle Planning Director Michael Barnes toward the end of the August 27 Planning Commission meeting. “We sort of talked about how we’re going to bring it in more manageable chunks.”
The first chunk will be the growth management policy which Barnes called the most fundamental of Albemarle’s principles. Other chunks will include rural land use and development area land use. Commissioners will have a chance to review the various goal statements.
Barnes said the new goal is to complete the Comprehensive Plan by this time next year. Later this fall, the Planning Commission will be presented with details of a solar ordinance.
Recent AC44 stories:
- Planning Commissioners briefed on “refinement” of AC44 process, July 17, 2024
- Public engagement to happen before Albemarle staff release AC44 draft, August 7, 2024
Ag-forest review?
Commissioner Julian Bivins asked when the Planning Commission might be able to review the concept of agricultural-forestal districts and whether they are having the effect of preserving farmland.
“The whole idea of what’s the nexus between the districts and the funding mechanism and what the cost of that is under today’s policy,” Bivins said.
The landowners of qualified properties that are in agricultural-forestal districts receive a reduced property tax burden if they agree to not develop their land for the foreseeable futures.
“What I’m trying to get at is that there’s this whole idea that there’s a revenue loss, a leakage, because of that program and to try to have some sense on whether what the cost-benefit of that leakage given the county is constrained in the way it can raise revenues,” Bivins said.
Investment in social housing?
The recent sale of the for-profit Cavalier Crossings to an investment fund also came up at the end of the meeting.
Rio District Commissioner Nathan Moore said the county should begin to develop its own housing projects.
“And there’s different ways to do it and different ways to go about it, but I think if we can think about how we can put county resources toward public goods which includes to me like our UVA Health wage workers being able to afford to live here, then that’s progress,” Moore said.
Albemarle County created an “Affordable Housing Investment Fund” as part of the budget for fiscal year 2019. According to the FY 25 budget, the fund is intended to “is intended to “support housing initiatives that are one-time costs and will support the County’s strategic and housing goals.”
Unlike the various community advisory committees, the Planning Commission has not had an update on the Housing Albemarle plan intended to incentivize the creation of more below-market units. Albemarle Community Development Director Jodie Filardo gave one at the August 27 meeting.
“The Board of Supervisors has actually adopted a rental incentive program [which] does exchange 20 percent of the units at 60 percent of the [area median income] for a 15 percent tax increment reduction over a ten year period over the entire project, not just the rental units,” Filardo said. “That is one program that is distinct and specific.”
Filardo said the county is open to other conversations about providing affordable housing in other ways.
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 September 4, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.
Discover more from Information Charlottesville
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
