Charlottesville Planning Commission to discuss capital budget, zoning code at work session

There are two ways to find out about meetings in the City of Charlottesville. 

The first is on the main website powered by the firm Civic Plus. (go look)

The second is a portal for meeting agendas and materials which is also powered by Civic Plus. Links from calendar #1 go to calendar #2. (go see)

Sometimes there are discrepancies. Both calendars list a work session of the Charlottesville Planning Commission at 5 p.m. Calendar #1 shows this as being in City Space and there’s a link to at least watch via zoom. Calendar #2, however, states it will take place in the Neighborhood Development Services Conference room at 610 East Market. This is what the agenda says, too, which means this meeting will not be recorded or televised. 

According to the agenda packet, there will be a 30 minute discussion of the capital improvement program. Last week, the City Council got a briefing of the budget and I wrote a detailed account.

Staff is asking Commissioners for feedback on two questions.

1. Given the broad areas of the CIP (which include Education, Facilities, Public Safety, Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Affordable Housing, Technology Infrastructure), what areas should receive consideration in the upcoming budget?
2. Which priorities from the Comprehensive Plan should be highlighted during this budget cycle?

The Planning Commission will have another work session on the CIP on November 26 and a public hearing on December 10. 

One change the city made in the last budget cycle was to stop pointing out that some capital projects are paid for through bonds and some are paid through direct cash payments. Projects that will be owned by another entity are not eligible to be paid for through municipal bonds, such as payments to the Piedmont Housing Alliance. 

The rest of the work session will be on the Development Code that has been in effect since mid-February. 

“The Commission requested an opportunity to share feedback on what has been heard from the community and individual commissioner experience with the Charlottesville Development Code since enactment,” writes NDS Deputy Director Missy Creasy in a staff report. “This is an opportunity to share information which will inform future discussions surrounding code refinement requests.”

There are no materials in advance for this item.

The new Development Code is intended to increased the total amount of dwellings within the City of Charlottesville by increasing the number allowed without seeking Council’s permission. All zoning districts but one received additional development rights. 

Since the zoning went into effect on February 19, there have been eight applications made for “Development Plan Review – Major” though one of them seems to be a duplicate. 

One of them is at 303 Alderman Road in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood. Evergreen Home Builders purchased the property this summer for $850,000 and filed their plan soon afterward. They can build six market-rate units on the property under the new Residential-B zoning and their plan is six townhouses with three fronting Alderman and three fronting Minor Road. The status of the permit is described as “Resubmittal Required.” 

Another project at 2030 Barracks Road would see 24 units built on land that’s also Residential-B. The plan here is to subdivide the lot into two and build 12 on each. This would require half of the units to be designated as affordable. One thing I am trying to understand is how easily the public can access correspondence about each of these by-right projects.

I also want to know the quirks of the new portal, which this week shows a new major development plan for 1609 Gordon Avenue #1. As you can see in the image, the status of PL-24-0097 is shown as void. But if you click for more information, you can see there is another item, PL-24-0042. This one is under review and appears to be a resubmission. 

The 0.172 acre property is now zoned as Residential Mixed Use 5 (RX-5). The version submitted in May was for nine units. If there was a tenth unit, it would be have been required by new inclusionary zoning. 

All projects must now submit an Affordable Dwelling Unit certification and the first of these is now available in the portal for this unit. I initially reported that the available document stated that there might be 20 units, but that was just the example provided by the city in the form letter. This project is for nine units, as was confirmed by a representative from Shimp Engineering shortly after this edition was posted.

There’s a lot for all of us to learn as the Development Code continues to be implemented. Charlottesville Community Engagement is committed to keeping track as much as possible.

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 23, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.