Albemarle County is moving forward with plans to prepare part of its land at Rivanna Futures for the future AstraZeneca pharmaceutical plants.
County staff have filed an initial site plan for what is referred to as Land Bay 50 of the Rivanna Futures land.
“This work is being performed in line with the expectations expressed by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership—specifically the Virginia Business Ready Sites program,” reads the narrative in the plan. “The County of Albemarle’s Office of Economic Development has been working in close collaboration with VEDP to bring sites to market for economic development opportunities.”
This site plan is for grading the site, which means to get it ready for future development. Albemarle received a $9.7 million grant from the VEDP for this purpose.
Specifications in the plan note that by-right buildings can be as tall as 65 feet. Earlier this month, Supervisors approved a change to the county’s zoning ordinance to allow for a development to ask for a special exception to exceed the height. The Planning Commission had recommended approval in September, as I have reported.
The proposed building height in Land Bay 50 will be 115 feet meaning a special exception will have to be approved. The total building space is listed as 400,000 gross square feet.
According to the initial site plan, the factories would have an average daily demand for water usage of 370,000 gallons per day. Total average sewer flow would be 130,000 gallons per day.
The plans show an eventual extension of Boulders Road that would lead to a new interchange with Austin Drive. In May 2018, the county purchased a property that formerly housed a psychic business for $250,000.
The site plan also depicts a Land Bay 25 and a Land Bay 30. A slide shown to the Board of Supervisors on October 15 also shows a Land Bay 40. There’s also another area that is currently unlabeled.
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