The Three-Party Agreement between the University of Virginia, the City of Charlottesville, and Albemarle County was signed in 1986 to guide planning in the region.
One of the provisions in the agreement is that UVA would appoint non-voting members to the planning commissions in both Albemarle and Charlottesville.
In Albemarle County, that position is vacant but the Board of Supervisors have appointed an official in the UVA Office of the Architect to serve as the at-large representative. Luis Carrazana, Associate Achitect, is currently the chair.
In Charlottesville, one of Carrazana’s colleagues is the non-voting member. Michael Joy, an another Associate Architect, is the one that provides updates.
“I have two exciting bits of information,” Joy said at the April 14 meeting of the Planning Commission.
On April 10, the University of Virginia held a groundbreaking ceremony for a renovated Center for Politics that includes additional space that can host up to 400 people. Access to the area has also been changed.
“One thing of note is that to access that facility there as part of the project was the creation of a new dedicated access road from Leonard Sandridge so you access it from the north,” Joy said. “Historically you would go on Old Ivy through that tough trestle. So that has now been vacated so you can no longer access that facility.”
The University of Virginia’s Buildings and Grounds Committee learned of this project in September 2023 as I reported at the time.
Joy also had details on the new Virginia Guesthouse on Ivy Road which is now open.
“That’s 223,000 gross square feet, 214 rooms,” Joy said. “There’s over 25,000 net assignable square feet of IACC certified conference space, which is the International Association of Conference Centers.”
Joy said this is the only such facility in Central Virginia. He added that there are three places in the building open to the public for dining.
The actual ribbon cutting will be on April 29.
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