As 2024 winds to a close, Albemarle County continues to proceed with an update of the Comprehensive Plan that could be described with many adjectives. For the purposes of this article, the word ‘thorough’ could be used though I’m sure different readers would perhaps use other choices.
State law requires communities to update their Comprehensive Plan every five years or so, and Albemarle Supervisors last approved an update in the summer of 2015. The Board adopted a resolution to begin the review in November 2021 and two of four phases were completed by this spring. What’s known as the AC44 process has been largely run by staff in the Department of Community Development.
Before phase three began, staff took a pause to restructure the document. This fall, they have been slowly revealing different sections of the document to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, as well as other stakeholders. For background, here are several stories.
- New details on staff-led Comprehensive Plan update in Albemarle County, October 8, 2024
- Albemarle PC begins review of new AC44 language on growth management, October 16, 2024
- Albemarle Supervisors discuss growth management policy at AC44 work session, October 23, 2024
- Albemarle Planning Commission briefed on land use chapter of new Comprehensive Plan, November 1, 2024
- Albemarle County to get outside help to review of how development area is used, November 22, 2024
Since the last story I wrote, the Planning Commission has had two work sessions and the Board of Supervisors has had one. On November 12, 2024, the seven-member Planning Commission took a look at the draft actions in the Development Areas Land Use chapter. They began with information about what feedback Supervisors provided at their November 6 meeting.
“The Board had concern for the number of proposed activities given the potential oversaturation of retail and how much investment might be needed to support any given center,” said Tori Kanellopoulos, a principal planner with Albemarle County. “And then they also asked us to look at potential incentives for redevelopment and encouraging activity centers.”
On November 12, the Planning Commission had the chance to provide feedback on parking requirements and potential reductions for activity centers, even though some of that information is also in the transportation chapter.
For those new to planning, Comprehensive Plans and strategic plans both have goals, objectives, and actions. If an initiative is in a plan, it has a stronger likelihood of being implemented.
Kanellopoulos summarized some of the actions intended to implement the objectives.
“That includes increasing infill, higher density development, adaptive reuse and redevelopment, increasing the number of jobs and housing units and activity and employment centers, investing in existing neighborhoods, which overlaps a lot with other chapters as well, including parks and then increasing tree coverage in the development areas, prioritising areas that have a lesser tree coverage than average across the county,” Kanellopoulos said.
One of the targeted areas of discussion dealt with parking as both the Planning Commission and Supervisors directed staff to factor in scenarios where requirements could be reduced. Kanellopoulos said communities all across the country are considering changes.
“Of course there are a lot of negative effects that can come from having too much parking, including increased impervious surface, the heat island effect and stormwater taking up space that could be used for other uses like buildings, potentially having tear downs of historic buildings to make room for parking and breaking up walkability through sites,” Kanellopoulos said.
The two sentences of Objective 2.1 call for parking reform in Albemarle, details what would be worked out at the zoning level.
“Reduce or eliminate vehicle parking requirements in designated Activity Centers,” reads the first. “Parking maximums should be considered within Regional Centers.”
Rivanna District Commissioner Corey Clayborne gave his perspective on what feels right in terms of right-sizing of parking.
“I think if I go to Whole Foods, that feels like it’s the right size, like it’s hard to find parking there,” Clayborne said. “But if I go to Giant on Pantops, if I go to Giant or Food Lion right by my house, there’s a million open spots.”
Clayborne wanted more information about how the microtransit pilot with Charlottesville Area Transit has worked and if there are lessons that can be learned.
Commissioners also had a long discussion of how to incentivize structured parking as well as redevelopment of existing shopping centers. White Hall District Commissioner Lonnie Murray said the county could make things easier.
“Personally, I think offering tax increment financing I think is a good way to get there because we’re not getting the additional revenue from redevelopment right now anyway,” Murray said.
Murray also suggested that residential units could be a by-right use in commercial zones.
If you want to see the whole discussion, take a look at the meeting on YouTube.
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 December 5, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon. There will be new options in 2025 if you’d like to wait. Just please know I’m glad you’re reading!
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