The City of Charlottesville is currently preparing to hire a consultant to conduct a transportation study required as part of a settlement of a lawsuit against the city’s new Development Code. Plaintiffs had argued the city did not adequately review the effects that additional density would have on existing infrastructure.
In April 2022, Charlottesville was still under a zoning code approved in 2003. City Council voted that month to approve a rezoning on about 12 acres of land at the end of Stribling Avenue for 170 residential units. At the time, Southern Development agreed to contribute $2.9 million toward upgrades to the roadway to support pedestrian traffic.
The Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association supported the rezoning with the caveat that the infrastructure would be in place before the new homes were built.
“There are no sidewalks,” said Laura Josey at the May 18 City Council meeting. “There is a blind hill, a blind curve and many cars drive too fast as it is making the street exceptionally dangerous.”
After the rezoning an option was selected for the project with assistance from the neighborhood. The city’s website now states that the total estimate for the project is $6,184,378 with $891,417 for preliminary engineering, $540,000 to purchase right of way, and $4,752,961 for construction.
The website states the project is expected to get to construction in the spring of 2026 with completion in 2027. However, that schedule will not be met.
“Just a few days ago on May 8, the neighborhood association was made aware that the project is temporarily on hold for the rest of the fiscal year,” Josey said. “This delay has the neighborhood concerned.”
The end of the fiscal year is June 30, 2026.
The development is now being marketed as Cooper’s Row and staff in Neighborhood Development Services approved a major subdivision last November. An erosion and stormwater management plan is currently under review.
Josey and several others urged the city to do what they can to move the project forward.
Steven Hicks, the city’s public works director, said the issue has solely to do with the escalating cost of right of way for permanent and temporary easements.
“The challenge is through the process we have a total of 48 parcels,” Hicks said. “We secured 12 of those parcels already. We have a remaining parcels of 33. The additional partials that we have went and started to negotiate with, some are coming back in figures that are concerning us.”
Hicks said the city needs slivers of land with most of them estimated at a purchase cost of between $2,000 and $6,000. Some of the counteroffers have been coming in at six figures, signaling that some land will likely have to be taken through eminent domain. That would leave it up to the courts to determine the cost.
“That’s an unknown risk,” Hicks said. “We anticipate already 8 to 10 condemnation cases coming forward.”
Hicks said the initial thought is that there will need to be at least another $400,000 on the right of way.
City Manager Sam Sanders said the project is not canceled and the schedule should not be disrupted.
“I’ll also say that not everybody in the neighborhood is supportive of this,” Sanders said. “They don’t want to give up the right of way.”
A project cannot go to the construction phase until all of the right of way is secured. Last May, City Council agreed to enter into the condemnation process for properties on both the East High Streetscape and a shared use path on Barracks Road. Updates on those in a future edition.
Previous coverage:
- Council approves rezoning for 240 Stribling, new agreement to pay for sidewalks, April 28, 2022
- NDS: Extent of design work Stribling Avenue sidewalk improvements not known, September 30, 2022
- Council approves fund transfers for Buford renovation, Stribling Avenue upgrade, May 3, 2023
- Neighborhood leaders ask questions about Fifeville transit, Stribling Avenue, July 16, 2023
- Options for Stribling Avenue sidewalk to be presented at meeting tonight, March 27, 2024
- Sanders provides updates on Stribling Avenue sidewalk project, August 23, 2024
- Council agrees to exercise eminent domain to purchase land for streetscape projects
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