Joy recaps UVA capital projects for Charlottesville Planning Commission

For many years, meetings of the Charlottesville Planning Commission have begun with reports from the various members. That pattern was slightly adjusted on December 10 when the new director of Neighborhood Development Services went first with an update on her department’s work plan. (read that story)

There was time before the Planning Commission’s public hearing on the five-year capital improvement program for Michael Joy to give a brief update on a recent meeting of the University of Virginia’s Buildings and Grounds Committee. Joy is an Associate University Architect and a non-voting member of the appointed body.

“Three capital projects were presented to the board,” Joy said. “The first project that was presented was a 1030 parking space parking garage over in North Grounds.”

Joy said approval means the project will soon go to construction at the northwest corner of Massie Road and Copeley Road. Completion is expected for 2026.

Another project will see three student residential buildings constructed on the western end of the Emmet Ivy Corridor with between 750 and 800 beds. The Board approved the schematic design but further approval is needed before construction can begin.

“Part of it butts up against the Copeley bridge and then another portion runs along Ivy Road and sits just to the west of the Karsh Institute of Democracy,” Joy said. “That is part of a larger discussion that’s currently happening around second year housing across Grounds.”

For more on those two projects, here are two recent stories I wrote:

• UVA Building and Grounds Committee approve North Grounds Parking Garage, add Ivy Road student housing project to Major Capital Plan, December 7, 2024
• UVA Finance Committee signs off on North Grounds Parking Garage, Ivy Road student housing, December 11, 2024

The third project is the Center for the Arts which was up for a preliminary review. This would be built at the eastern end of the Emmet Ivy Corridor.

“Some of the programmatic highlights for this include a 1200 seat performing arts center, the UVA Department of Music,” Joy said. “There’s galleries, art galleries that will showcase the combined UVA fine art collection of the Fralin and the Kluge Rue along with travelling exhibits.”

Joy said the Center for the Arts will need a significant amount of state funding to proceed. As I reported earlier this month for C-Ville Weekly, that could be as much as $200 million in state funds. Some members of the Board of Visitors indicated they’d like to see the project scaled back in scope.

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