Area planners hear from VDOT about desire to coordinate transportation projects

For many years, there were two public bodies that provided guidance to joint planning efforts between Albemarle, Charlottesville, and the University of Virginia. Anyone could attend meetings of either the Planning and Coordination Committee or its technical subcommittee.

That all changed at the end of 2019 when both City Council and the Board of Supervisors agreed to terminate PACC and PACC-Tech in favor of a new Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee that is out of the reach of Virginia’s open meeting laws.

“Completed meeting dates and locations are listed below and the agendas are posted after meetings,” reads the website where meeting materials for LUEPC are stored. “All LUEPC meetings are closed to the public.”

Charlottesville Planning Commissioner Hosea Mitchell serves on LUEPC and reported to his colleagues on April 14 that the body has met twice this year with the first in February with two presentations from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“The first thing we talked about was just general regional coordination between the University. Albemarle in the city, in the planning district when it comes to any VDOT projects that are happening in the area,” Mitchell said.

A one-sheet explanation of the “Regional Infrastructure Coordination Framework” states the purpose is “to establish a tiered coordination structure that enables proactive planning, conflict resolution, and public transparency for infrastructure improvements, land development activities, and permitted work on all public roadways within the region.”

According to the presentation, there are a lot of transportation projects soon to get under construction.

“Over the next three years Charlottesville/Albemarle Area will have approximately 39 projects go to advertisement totaling nearly $300 million,” reads the third page. “One hundred and nine million is slated to be locally administered by the City or Albemarle County.”

The presentation asks if LUEPC is the appropriate body to review those projects, identify conflicts, and be a “collaborative voice to inform respective decision-makers.”

There was also a discussion of what the three parties could do during construction to better coordinate messaging.

Mitchell said upcoming work on Fontaine Avenue and its interchange with U.S. 29 / 250 was the second topic at the February meeting.

“Won’t go into detail, but it’s all in your packets,” Mitchell said. “Lots of good stuff happening there.”

That presentation is not posted on the LUEPC website and is not within the online packet of the Charlottesville Planning Commission. The minutes for the LUEPC meetings c just list who was present at the meeting.

The second LUEPC meeting of the year was held on March 20. The topics were:

• Charlottesville gave a presentation on potential to change in-lieu fees for student housing. I’ll have a story from that topic’s discussion before the Charlottesville Planning Commission. Here are the slides if you want to see them sooner.
• Albemarle County gave a presentation on the Affordable Housing Investment Fund which you can see here. A key theme in Albemarle’s proposed budget for FY2027 is a push from some Supervisors to get the fund to $10 million.

The next meeting of LUEPC is this Friday at noon. The meeting will be virtual but neither you nor I are allowed to attend.

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