New details on staff-led Comprehensive Plan update in Albemarle County 

Every now and then, the Albemarle County Planning Commission meets at 4 p.m. rather than 6 p.m. for a work session. This is one of those times and the topic is a resumption of discussion on the county’s update of a Comprehensive Plan last updated in June 2015. (meeting info) (agenda)

In Virginia, a municipality’s Comprehensive Plan is a document that essentially asks two basic questions. Do you want this locality to grow? If so, where? 

Charlottesville City Council last adopted such a plan in November 2021 in which the five elected officials declared they wanted to pave the way for additional residential density throughout the whole city. That led to a zoning code that will allow that vision to happen if the new rules survive a legal challenge. 

Nelson County’s recent Comprehensive Plan was amended toward the end of its review process in response to some residents wanting to ensure growth remained limited and rural in areas like Montebello. In their last update, Louisa County continued to endorse expanded growth areas along I-64. Fluvanna County recently updated their 2015 plan with only a few updates so more detail can be worked out how the rural area can be protected and preserved.

Albemarle County began its Comprehensive Plan review process in late 2021 and Supervisors agreed to a four-phase process. Work was done in-house rather than hire a consultant. Two of these were completed, but sometime this year county staff and county staff alone opted to pause the work. For those details, take a look at a story I wrote in July of this year explaining the delay.

At this 4 p.m. work session, staff will take the Planning Commission through a new outline for the document as well as language about the county’s growth management policy. For more than four decades, Albemarle has restricted most development to a growth area that consists of around five percent of its 726 square miles.  During that time, the population has climbed to over 116,000 people according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. 

For Albemarle County in 2024, a third question is how well the county is doing with managing the growth areas and a fourth is when the boundaries may need to be expanded. 

“Confirming the Growth Management Policy is a critical first step because it provides the overarching guidance for land use decisions within the Development Areas and the Rural Area as well as policy and funding decisions related to county services and capital project Investments,” read the staff report for the work session. 

The Planning Commission has been briefed on the new structure for the Comprehensive Plan but the substance has been kept under wraps until the materials for this meeting were published late last week. Staff is only releasing portions of the language at a time, areas marked in red. 

For instance, here’s a line from the section in Part 2 on “Growth Management Framework.” (read this section)

“The purpose of the Growth Management Policy is to provide efficient and cost-effective public service delivery and encourage compact, connected, and dense development patterns and uses within the Development Areas to protect the ecosystems and natural, scenic, historic, and cultural resources in the Rural Area,” reads the second paragraph. 

This third phase incorporates feedback from the first and second phase. 

“As part of the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update, the Board of Supervisors indicated no changes to the Development Areas boundaries are needed at this time,” reads a section titled “Development Areas Utilization Review. “While boundary changes may not be needed in the near future, there may come a point in time where the current Development Areas no longer have sufficient capacity to accommodate future housing and employment needs.”

There are a lot of details about what criteria will be used to determine when those changes might be made, based on measuring how land in the development is being used. The draft framework notes that developments built between 2016 and 2021 only used 58 percent of the full potential for residential space. 

The other item to be presented to the Planning Commission is a draft Future Land Use Map that introduces a refreshed set of categories for different ways that the county expects land to be used. 

In AC44, “Neighborhood Residential” land use category sets a density range of 3 to 6 units per acre. That’s consistent with the Crozet Master Plan adopted in October 2021, except that plan used the word “typology” rather than “category.” 

As with Cville Plans Together, I will risk being wordy and will refrain from using the acronym for Future Land Use Map. 

There is also a draft map of activity and employment centers, a key component in forthcoming language that will describe how the vision of the Comprehensive Plan will be implemented. 

The Planning Commission’s regular meeting begins at 6 p.m. There are two public hearings.

• One is for a special use permit for a cell tower replacement at property on Fifth Street Extended now owned by the University of Virginia (staff report)
• The second is for a request from the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative to replace a transmission line with taller poles (staff report)

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 October 7, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.