Albemarle County Supervisors adopt an updated economic development strategic plan

Two months before a scheduled vote on the Comprehensive Plan, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has adopted a strategic plan for economic development.

“This is a pivotal moment,” said Jack Jouett District Supervisor Diantha McKeel. “The decisions we make today will shape the trajectory of economic growth, opportunity and resilience in Albemarle County.”

Download the adopted plan here.

The economic development strategic plan builds off both Project Enable and a regional economic development plan adopted by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in May 2024. Albemarle hired the firm Resonance to conduct the work.

Emily Kilroy, the county’s economic development director, said the EDSP fits into the overall Comprehensive Plan.

“The comprehensive plan has a 20 year time horizon and really sets a vision for the county,” Kilroy said. “Strategic plans have a tighter time horizon of five years, they help set the strategy. So what will we work on? How will we try to attack achieving the vision over the next five year period.”

The vision for the plan states: “Albemarle County — Rooted in Innovation. Open for Investment. Where bold ideas take root, businesses scale, and partnerships thrive — leading the way in Virginia’s next innovation economy.”

Steven Pedigo with Resonance drew attention to the mission statement which reads: “The mission of the Albemarle County Economic Development Office is to strengthen and diversify the County’s tax base, support business scale-up and redevelopment, and expand career-ladder job opportunities — ensuring a vibrant, innovative economy that delivers lasting prosperity for all residents.”

“I think if you read this work, this mission statement, I think it gets to this idea of the concept of which we believe is what’s called complete community building,” Pedigo said “And that’s really the emphasis of this plan is that complete community building says to do economic development right, you have to do lots of different things.”

Pedigo said Albemarle had a reputation for many years of not being open for business and this second EDSP is an attempt to reposition.

The first goal of the plan builds off the county’s ongoing investment in Rivanna Futures. In May 2023, Supervisors agreed to purchase 462 acres around the Rivanna Station military base which houses the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Ground Intelligence Center.

“You all have put a flag in the ground, so to speak, around national intelligence and national security particularly with the work around Rivanna Station,” Pedigo said. “We want to execute on that and think robustly not just about that investment, but how do you build around the ecosystem around that.”

The second goal is the phrase “We will grow into the Mid-Atlantic’s premier destination for biotechnology and life sciences innovation.”

“The second goal is really going all in on life sciences, particularly medical devices, biotechnology,” Pedigo said. “A lot of opportunity here, both with CvilleBioHub, which is a really amazing group that’s done a lot of work to support startup technology enterprises in that space. But also again, you’re home to the University of Virginia Health Sciences center here. So that makes another reason to think about that.”

The third goal is to promote the agribusiness sector and to modernize the industry.

“Without modern infrastructure, access to growth capital, and stronger business supports, producers will struggle to scale—and the County risks missing a national wave of rural innovation, where value-added agriculture is one of the fastest-growing sectors,” reads the EDSP.

Specific strategies include rewriting the zoning code to allow for restaurants and lodging in the rural area as well as allowing “small-scale cold storage, processing and packing, broadband, and rural manufacturing capacity.”

“A focused assessment of infrastructure needs will help the county prioritize rural investment, support local business growth, and align with emerging opportunities in food innovation, agtech, and small-scale rural manufacturing,” reads strategy 3.2.

Goal 4 calls for investment in entrepreneurs.

“You know, one of the interesting things that we found in the research work, particularly the benchmarking work, is your greatest export outside of the county are really smart college students, your college town,” Pedigo said. “That’s not unsurprising. The question for us is how do you keep some of that talent here to really help grow your enterprises?”

Goal 5 is the phrase “We will position Albemarle as Virginia’s most investment ready county — ready to compete, build, and lead.”

Pedigo said that’s about reducing regulations and making it easier for firms to do business.

“5.1 is giving the county an opportunity to really go back and think about its development process and its zoning code processes,” Pedigo said. “I will say the most pent up demand of conversation we had or the most. The most vocal group that we talked to was the development community here.”

The county claims that 2,400 people participated in the process. The Weldon Cooper Center’s population estimate for Albemarle is over 117,000 people. There is a two-page “engagement and media summary” that lists a series of meetings and links to four press articles. Stories I have written are not included, including one I do as a member of the reporting staff at C-Ville Weekly.

• Update on Albemarle’s next economic strategic plan, Rivanna Futures, September 28, 2024
• Albemarle seeking input on new economic development strategy, January 30, 2025
• Albemarle hopes to become Virginia’s ‘next innovation economy’, June 18, 2025
• Albemarle Supervisors briefed on economic development plan, June 19, 2025
• Albemarle’s next economic development strategic plan likely to be adopted before AC44, July 22, 2025

After hearing an overview of what is in the document, members of both the EDA as well as Supervisors had the opportunity to weigh in.

Before the document was finalized, EDA member Jeff Morrill had sought to add language to ensure that the purpose for the EDSP was not to take away from all of the things that make Albemarle what it is today. 

“My proposed mission was going to read in this way: deliver lasting prosperity for Albemarle residents by expanding employment opportunities, strengthening and diversifying our task base and supporting local businesses and redevelopment while protecting our environment and exceptional quality of life,” Morrill said. 

White Hall District Supervisor Ann Mallek said she thought adding such language might help win more people over to the plan. 

“As someone who’s been in that sort of clean air, clean water space for a long, long time, I think that this kind of inclusion in some fashion will help to build support for the entire plan across the county residents,” Mallek said. 

Goal 3 of the plan is to “Grow A Modern Agribusiness Economy. Mallek said the county has been trying several strategies over the years such as initial research into a flash freezing facility funded by two grants from the Virginia Department of Agricultural Consumer Services in 2014 and 2015. She also said there has been research into whether there should be a meat processing facility. 

“Various ag groups have researched do we have enough animals to be able to have a processing site here?” Mallek said. “And we have found that we don’t have enough sustained production throughout the year for something to go. There are now in the last five years two very small ones, one in Greene and one in Barbersville, which is helpful because that reduces that time for people to travel and sustains the meat sector very well.” 

Mallek noted that Prince Edward County funds a cannery for local producers. 

One of the members of the EDA, Steve Hood, had mentioned at a July 22 special meeting that he thought Albemarle County should expand its growth area. At the August 13 meeting, he wanted Pedigo to know what he thought about restricting development to the current five percent of the county’s land. 

“What’s the norm?” Hood asked. “What have you seen succeed in your, in your, in your past? 

I mean, that just seems kind of small to me.” 

Pedigo said from the beginning the EDSP was not intended to undermine the county’s Comprehensive Plan which calls for maintaining growth area boundaries. He said there are trade-offs and Albemarle puts a premium on environmental protection. 

“The plan is trying to give you a level of specificity that I think you’re all desiring to have in terms of everything in your shopping cart,” Pedigo said. “But it’s also saying we’re not going to solve everything in a strategic plan And this is the opportunity for the economic development staff to go out and have an opportunity to explore those efforts.”

Participating remotely, Samuel Miller District Supervisor Jim Andrews said he did not want to have a discussion about expanding the growth area. He did say he supported Morrill’s desire to place an emphasis on environmental protection. 

“I just worry that a lot of people looking at this are worried that we’re trying to open ourselves too much up and not being consistent with our Comprehensive Plan,” Andrews said. “I just want to make sure we can tweak language here and there to recognize that this is fitting within that plan and quality of life and the environmental sustainability that we created.”

Rio District Supervisor Ned Gallaway said he could understand concerns people have about the EDSP moving Albemarle too far toward industrial development.

“I appreciate the points and the concerns, but if we really think that either Supervisors or economic development staff are up here conniving through the economic development strategic plan to change who Albemarle is, that’s an unfounded fear,” Gallaway said. “We have to find ways to pay for things and those who want us to protect what we have in Albemarle as it has come to exist costs money.”

Gallaway said the idea is to increase the percentage of revenue that comes from commercial sources to alleviate pressure on the real property tax rate. 

Gallaway also pushed back on the notion that Albemarle attracted the defense industry. He said the military chose this community and not the other way around. 

“It was an industry that developed here based on their own choice probably because they liked how Albemarle was defined, what existed here, and they were like ‘that’s not a bad spot,”” Gallaway said. 

Gallaway also said the same applies to the lifesciences, an initiative driven by the University of Virginia and groups like CvilleBiohub.

“So really it’s about seeing what’s happening and going, ‘wait! That is fitting within the definition of Albemarle County,” Gallaway said. 

EDA member Frank Friedman served for many years as president of Piedmont Virginia Community College. He said for him it was important that the plan demonstrate efforts to provide a pathway for higher wages, citing the Orange Dot Report which provides data on the number of households struggling to be self-sufficient. Friedman was also participating remotely. 

“We must recognize that hospitality, tourism and retail is the lowest paying economic sector and many of our residents are working in those areas,” Friedman said. “I think we want economic development to create middle wage, middle skilled jobs that many of those folks can aspire to and move up to.”

Toward the end of the discussion, County Executive Jeffrey Richardson explained how the EDSP is just one way the county seeks to achieve the official vision as listed in the strategic plan. He read some of those bullet points.

“We envision a community that has abundant natural, rural, historic and scenic resources,” Richardson said. “We want a community that has healthy ecosystems. We want a physical environment that supports healthy lifestyles. Now stop. That’s the environment and the sustainability. Now let’s go to the balance side of the equation. We want active and vibrant development areas. We want a thriving economy. We want a thriving economy.”

Richardson said that means good jobs, and the EDSP is intended to be a roadmap to get them. 

The five Supervisors present adopted the plan. Next up – the Comprehensive Plan on October 15.

Before you go: This story will be published in two installments in Charlottesville Community Engagement with the first from August 19, 2025. The next will be in the August 25 edition. This has been produced here because both will be one segment in the next radio version and podcast.