This past Wednesday, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors was set to readopt the 2015 Comprehensive Plan with minor adjustments in order to comply with state law requiring a review every ten years.
Luke Fluvanna, Albemarle County last adopted a Comprehensive Plan in 2015 but staff in their Department of Community Development still continue work on what’s called AC44.
“We are in the thick of it at the staff level and we are getting ready to roll out a fair amount of stuff in October,” said Michael Barnes, Albemarle’s planning director, at the September 10 meeting of the Albemarle Planning Commission.
The AC44 update process kicked off in late 2021 and a third phase was sent to begin this summer but staff decided to take a pause and reframe some of the document. Here are some recent stories documenting the pause.
- Checking in with AC44 as update’s third phase looms, November 17, 2023
- AC44 work slowed down in late FY24, Planning Commission to get an update on July 9, July 7, 2024
- Checking in with AC44 as update’s third phase looms, July 17, 2024
- Public engagement to happen before Albemarle staff release AC44 draft, August 7, 2024
Barnes said the public will see new material soon on development and land use policies.
“Hopefully over the next several months you’ll be seeing several chapter, topic chapters, dealing with both the policy of land use and rural land use and transportation in the rural and development area is where we’re going to start,” Barnes said. “We’ll be working toward the environmental chapters after that.”
Barnes said there will be multiple meetings throughout the end of the year and he’s excited to being the information to the public.
Commissioner Karen Firehock said she hopes the review can be timed in a way that Supervisors get the chance to see the input of their Planning Commission, the advisory body specifically charged with creating and updating the Comprehensive Plan.
“My Supervisor complained to me about having to do one of the reviews without the benefits of the minutes of the Planning Commission for the comp plan specifically,” Firehock said.
Barnes said the intent would be to bring both bodies the same material but they will try to turn the meeting minutes around fast enough for the Supervisors to have the benefit of reading them.
Commission Chair Fred Missel said one suggestion might be to frame their conversations to be more intentional about giving direction to Supervisors. He also urged staff to update the AC44 website to reflect the new schedule. As of this Monday afternoon, the AC44 website still stated the document is to be completed this fall but that is no longer the case. The website is also not update as of September 20, 2024.
“If we know that we’re going to have work sessions during the fall and winter of 2024, it seems that should be on the website so that others know it’s going to be coming before the Planning Commission,” Missel said.
Earlier in the meeting, Commissioner Julian Bivins requested that the body get an update on progress being made toward the strategic plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors.
“The county has a Strategic Plan Execution and Analysis Reporting and many of us have wondered what are the ways in which things are being measured and will be measured,” Bivins said.
Bivins said AC44’s development might be assisted if the SPEAR report can be presented to the Planning Commission. Bivins also wanted the Planning Commission to get a report from the county’s assistant director of housing on what’s happened in the last 38 months since the Housing Albemarle plan was adopted in July 2021.
For more coverage of AC44, visit Information Charlottesville.
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