Divided City Council appears willing to sell Clarke Court to the Jefferson Scholars Foundation

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation has slowly been accumulating property along Maury Avenue just south of the University of Virginia’s central campus.

If you look at the city’s property records, you’ll find that the entity owns both 100 Clarke Court and 112 Clarke Court which means they are the sole property owner served by that cul-de-sac.

On November 3, City Council held a public hearing on a request from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation for Charlottesville to give up the public right of way that makes up Clarke Court.

“The Jefferson Scholars Foundation is requesting the vacation of Clarke Court as part of their long range strategic plan,” said Matt Alfele, the city’s development planning manager.

Alfele said the request had been made as part of a preliminary site plan submitted in July 2023 that would convert the road to a private driveway. Since then the foundation has consolidated other properties it owns into the 112 Clarke Court project in order to satisfy concerns that one of the parcels might be landlocked after vacation.

The city would lose five on-street parking spaces. The city currently has public gas, water, and sewer utilities in the area. One concern by staff is that the city does not know what the Jefferson Scholars Foundation plans to build.

“The extent of this impact cannot be determined until the applicant provides a more detailed plan for future development of the site,” Alfele said.

Staff recommended denial.

Before the public hearing, a representative from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation said that the entity is separate from the University of Virginia and pays taxes to the city as a nonprofit entity.

“The last calendar year, the Jefferson Scholars Foundation paid $433,000 in property taxes to the City of Charlottesville with cumulative payments totaling 2.697 million over the past 10 years,” said Helen Dwyer, vice president and director for business and planning at the Foundation.

Dwyer said that amount would increase if the foundation could acquire the right of way and as the area is further developed. She said the Jefferson Scholars Foundation has been a good neighbor by offering meeting space to local organizations and parking for local restaurants.

“Over the subsequent years, our community grew more professors, more graduate students and more undergraduate students joined our community,” Dwyer said. “And when we were presented with the opportunity to own contiguous space around Clarke Court, our board of directors advised us to do so for the purpose of having space to accommodate our growing community.”

Dwyer said granting the vacation would allow the foundation to take its long range planning process off of pause. They don’t want to invest more time into design until they know if the city would allow the sale of public land.

City Councilor Lloyd Snook said he wanted to have some idea of what the foundation wanted to do.

“If the answer is what you’re planning would be some greater degree of office and classroom space and things like that, and you’re not thinking you’re going to make it into a commercial space or you’re not going to make it into a banquet facility for the public or a hotel or some other things like that, frankly, that’s all I care about,” Snook said.

City Councilor Michael Payne said he did not support the request because the street is public property.

“Neighborhood Development Services recommended denial,” Payne said. “I just don’t understand why we wouldn’t be tough but fair and follow our own processes and not treat differently a member of the broader UVA community.”

At the time of the meeting, Payne mistakenly said one of the properties that had been consolidated had been slated for development of 64 units and purchased by the Jefferson Scholars Foundation to prevent that from happening. That did happen but on the other side of Maury Avenue as I reported at the time. Payne corrected himself later in the discussion.

Payne also mentioned that Jimmy Wright, the president of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city in a bid to stop development of a student apartment building at 2005 Jefferson Park Avenue. Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell ruled against that lawsuit this past January, as I reported at the time.

Councilor Natalie Oschrin also supported staff.

Mayor Juandiego Wade said he would support the request because of the potential for additional taxes.

“And also, just as a side, I’ve been working with many of the students over the last year to do many volunteer things in the community,” Wade said.

Council voted 3-2 on a motion to indicate a willingness to vacate the land. The next step is for negotiations to begin before a final vote would be taken on a sales price.

Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the November 6, 2025 edition edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.  You can either subscribe through Substack, make a monthly contribution through Patreon, or consider becoming a sponsor. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what’s happening in local, regional, state, and federal government. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things.