No more updates for Albemarle growth area master plans; the activity center plan era is here

The population of Albemarle County increased 5.3 percent from 2020 to 2025 according to the U.S. Census Bureau and thousands more are projected to move here in the decades to come.

The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia projects Albemarle’s population will climb to 152,770 in 2050, up from the 2020 Census count of 112,395.

Under Virginia code, localities must develop a Comprehensive plan to prepare for the future.

“The comprehensive plan shall be made with the purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the territory,” reads the code.

For decades, Albemarle County’s Comprehensive Plans have put a focus on rural area conservation and successive updates focused development into approximately five percent of the county’s 726 square miles.

“The intent is to focus development into the urban areas to create quality living areas, avoid sprawl, improve access to services, and protect the natural and agricultural resources and uses of the rural areas,” reads the county’s page on master planning.

Over the years, a total of five master plans have been adopted to guide private and public development on a twenty-year time frame.

• The latest version of the Crozet Master Plan is from October 20, 2021 (read the plan)
• The latest version of the Pantops Master Plan is from June 19, 2019 (read the plan)
• The Places29 Master Plan was first adopted on February 2, 2011 with minor amendments on June 10, 2015 (read the plan)
• The Southern and Western Urban Neighborhoods Master Plan was adopted on June 10, 2015 as part of the overall Comprehensive Plan (read the plan)
• The Village of Rivanna Master Plan was adopted on May 12, 2010 (read the plan)

However, the county’s website is now out of date. The Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors on October 15, 2025 gave direction to staff in the Department of Community Development to move in another direction. They got an update from staff on August 5, 2026.

“With the adoption of AC44, the county is transitioning away from master plans as standalone documents,” said James Wilkinson, a long range planner with Albemarle County. “Master plan recommendations will be folded into the next generation of planning activities in the county. The application of the Future Land Use Map, as well as activity center planning and multimodal transportation planning.”

The new Comprehensive Plan also reduced the number of activity centers from around 50 to 22. These are areas where the county wants to focus density and a mix of uses based on the county’s strategic plan as well as the Economic Development Strategic Plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors in August 2015.

Under the new planning rubric, the county will work on one “Activity Center Plan” at a time with each taking up to 18 months.

“We’re hoping that they’re going to assist and inform strategic public and private initiatives and decision-making in the development areas in line with AC44 and the strategic plan, aiming for new opportunities, improved proximity and accessibility for everything ranging from jobs, multimodal transit, affordable housing, parks and green space, environmental protection. climate action, equity, and overall quality of life,” Wilkinson said.

Some resources:

• Activity Center Plans (ACPs): An Overview
• The Activity Center Planning Process for ACP #1, Including Deliverables + Timelines (18-Month Project)
• August 5, 2026 presentation

As with much of the AC44 process, county staff have done the work in-house with the public only seeing results when county employees have done a lot of the work of selecting what areas will get their attention. The first phase of identifying the locations of area plans has been called “Project Design: Laying the Groundwork for Excellence.”

Wilkinson said months of research went into identifying which areas should go first. Areas like the Village of Rivanna, the Fontaine Research Park, Ivy Road, and Crozet were discarded early.

“Our research indicated that these areas were either part of recent master planning efforts, or they didn’t have enough significant development or redevelopment potential and/or meaningful county leverage points at the moment to make an activity center plan productive at this time,” Wilkinson said.

Three areas rose to the top for the first locations for an Activity Center Plan but Albemarle planning staff selected the U.S. 29 / Airport Road area as the top location, including some land that is not currently in the designated growth area.

“It features areas of significant residential development,” Wilkinson said. “Hollymead Town Center, a county-owned parcel with trail easement potential, undeveloped land in the adjacent rural area between Route 29 and Berkmar Drive, and an extension to Berkmar Drive that will improve north-south connectivity.”

Wilkinson said there is a lot of interest in private development in the area as well as significant public investment at the Rivanna Futures business park. He added this would give an opportunity to think about how to alter the development area boundary in a coordinated manner.

“As part of that, the county could consider expanding services and facilities in the area, such as police, fire, and rescue, to serve as a northern hub for new residents and nearby businesses, as well as prioritizing resources from the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund,” Wilkinson said.

The other two areas considered by staff are the ones staff recommends going next. They are the Pantops area and the Rio / 29 area. Another top candidate that didn’t make the cut for the top three is the Southern neighborhoods.

A technical advisory group will be created to oversee the work.

Supervisory comments

Supervisor Fred Missel of the Scottsville District appreciated getting insight into how staff made decisions of what to focus on and thought the three staff selections were about equal.

“Initially I was thinking that this one feels a little bit more isolated because it… doesn’t really need city involvement,” Missel said. “It’s not close to the city. But on the other hand, it’s also maybe a little bit simpler in that sense that you can kind of begin there and start to expand.”

The Rivanna District that Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley represents includes Pantops where the idea of an additional bridge has been contemplated. When the time comes for Pantops to receive the attention of county planners, sorting out a location for that structure could be one of the outcomes.

“One of the reasons we think this area is interesting is that gives us an opportunity to start working with the city and laying that groundwork to discuss those possibilities, because it will be difficult,” said Tonya Swartzendruber, a planning manager in Albemarle County. “We know that, but it’s a conversation that would be, you know, essential should we want to.”

There are a lot of prior studies to review.

In the mid-2010’s, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission oversaw a project to identify alternatives to Free Bridge in order to get some of the early environmental work out of the way.

The Eco-Logical Free Bridge Area Congestion Relief Project Alternatives Summary can be viewed here. The plan has largely sat on the shelf as both elected officials and staff have moved on to other phases of their lives.

Supervisor Michael Pruitt of the Scottsville District was interested in learning more about the planning for Pantops with areas ripe for redevelopment and adaptive re-use possible for the State Farm headquarters.

One idea for a river crossing comes in the form of a bicycle and pedestrian bridge across the Rivanna River. In 2022, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization selected an option that would see the western end of the bridge land in a 45-acre pocket of Albemarle County land known as the Broadway Street Corridor.

“A big thing we have to do is figure out how we’re going to leverage and energize and continue the good thing we’ve got going in the Broadway area. master plan area, which we’ve been talking about since I joined the board,” Pruitt said.

However, the TJPDC has tried and failed four times to get a federal grant to further the design for the bridge.

Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District has been in elected office since January 2008 and has voted on every single one of the master plans. She said she understood what staff wants to do, but others might not.

“Not to take away from Airport Road to Ashford Boulevard, but for the rest of the county, how do the residents in the rest of the county see their longtime projects advancing?” Mallek said. “Because this looks like they aren’t, and that’s a very alarming prospect to a lot of my constituents who already have 13,000 new residents that they didn’t have 10 years ago.”

Wilkinson said the Community Advisory Committees are being briefed this summer on the status of recommendations in the master plan.

• The Crozet CAC had their briefing on August 12.
• The 5th and Avon CAC had their update on August 20.
• The Pantops group met on August 24 but had other items to discuss on the agenda
• The Places29-Rio CAC had their briefing on August 27
• The Places29-North CAC were told the news on September 10
• The Places-29 Hydraulic CAC gets their update tonight
• The Village of Rivanna CAC has members again after a mass resignation in 2022 but does not appear to ever meet

These meetings are not recorded so we don’t know what the responses were from attendees until we see the minutes.

“Part of the hope of that effort and outreach is to provide that update that you’re talking about so that we’re addressing that concern,” Wilkinson said.

In his remarks, County Executive Jeff Richardson explained that the recommendation to focus on U.S. 29 and Airport Road is to build on the economic development investments being made in the area.

“We’ve got to grow the industry tax base,” Richardson said. “We are now at 10.7 percent, and we’ve got to move that needle into this 15 percent, 16 percent, 17 percent area because this Board fully knows about what our cost for service study tells us about industry, the margins with industry, how we serve it, and it helps us to pay for other stuff.”

Now let’s turn this over to you. I’m curious to know what people across all of Albemarle think about this new approach. I’ll be coming up with a list of questions but for now I want to know what you think. Leave comments or drop me a line.

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