Albemarle Supervisors approval renewal of parking agreement for Northside Library

In March 2015, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library moved the Northside Library from the Albemarle Square Shopping Center just to the west in a repurposed commercial building. Albemarle County Public Schools also use a portion of the space for their English as a Second or Other Language program.

“From the opening of the Northside Library, the amount of patron parking has been an issue,” reads a staff report for an item on the April 15 consent agenda of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. “Site constraints limit the number of parking spaces on the premises to 80.”

To boost that number, the county entered into a license agreement with the Charlottesville Daily Progress in May 2017 to rent an additional 21 spaces. The formerly daily newspaper sold the property to another firm and a new update was made in 2020 that expires on April 30, 2026.

Earlier this tear, RRP Investments proposed a new agreement to offer the spaces through the and of April 2027 with the option for two more one-year terms. Rent will be $22,680 for the first year with the cost shared equally between the county, ACPS, and JMRL. Payments would increase in year two and year three.

• Draft agreement for Northside Library
• Resolution to approve the agreement

Supervisors approved the agreement according to an action report from the April 15, 2026 meeting.

Northside Library had been using some of the parking in front of another adjacent building at 721 Rio Road West but that arrangement has stopped due to the repurposing of that structure to be a storefront for rental of heavy equipment. For more information on that, take a look at a story I wrote for C-Ville Weekly in February 2024.

The county paid Martha Jefferson Hospital $3 million for the building which was formerly home to Phillips Building Supply.

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