Albemarle Supervisors to meet with area legislators on Monday morning

The next regular session of the Virginia General Assembly gets underway in six weeks just a few days before Democrat Abigail Spanberger is sworn in as Virginia’s 75th Governor. The first few bills have been filed including second reference of four amendments to the state constitution. 

Around this time of year, Albemarle Supervisors meet with area legislators to explain their priorities and explain a little about what’s happening. This year’s event will take place at 10 a.m. in Room 241 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. There are four topics. (meeting info) (agenda)

First, let’s take a look at the legislators with links to the Virginia Public Access Project and the Legislative Information System if you want to know more. 

Albemarle County is within Senate District 11 which is represented by Senator Creigh Deeds. Deeds was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1991 and the Senate in 2001. Nine bills that he carried as chief patron were adopted into law in the 2025 regular session and another three were vetoed. Take a look here.

House District 54 includes all of Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s urban ring. Delegate Katrina Callsen is about to enter her second term. In 2025, nine bills she carried as chief patron became law including one to direct the Virginia Department of Taxation to amend the way affordable housing projects are assessed. Three bills were vetoed.

House District 55 covers Albemarle County and Delegate Amy Laufer is entering her second term. Six bills that she carried as chief patron in 2025 became law including an amendment to the Dam Safety Act. Two were vetoed including one that would require public institutions of higher learning to have a non-voting faculty member on their governing board. 

What shall 2026 bring? Albemarle County wants to continue positioning Rivanna Futures for funding to help with economic development goals. The first item on the agenda is a briefing on how the county’s investment yielded a $4.5 billion investment from AstraZeneca. 

The second item is a discussion of transportation funding. There’s no advance information but the topic came up at a recent discussion of the Smart Scale program. Albemarle has committed nearly $34.6 million to a leveraging fund to help match state dollars, but some Supervisors have concerns about the overall process. 

The third item gets into the details of the county’s legislative program for 2026 as well as legislative positions. The latter is a list of desired legislation and continued funding. 

Albemarle would like the following:

• Enable localities to enforce the Virginia Landlord-Tenant Act
• Expand authority to use photo speed monitoring devices 
• Enable a referendum on a local option one-cent sales tax for school division capital projects 
• State funding for Biscuit Run Park– Monacan Indian Nation Tribute Park Connector Greenway Trail project

This meeting will conclude with a chance to hear from the legislators about what their priorities will be for the 2026 session. 

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