Site plan conference Thursday for Salvation Army’s Center for Hope

There are multiple efforts underway to provide more places for people in need to sleep safely including the City of Charlottesville’s emergency shelter at 2000 Holiday Drive which has been up and running for nearly a month.

Last night, 71 people stayed there according to the city’s Office of Communications and Public Engagement.

Later this year, SupportWorks Housing is expected to open the first units of an 80-bed single room occupancy facility on Seminole Trail at the site of a former motel.

City Manager Sam Sanders has hinted that work is underway to find more sites for transitional units and City Council has agreed to spend $4 million of a $7 million disbursement from the Commonwealth of Virginia for that purpose.

The other $3 million is going to the Salvation Army to help finance their Center for Hope which will expand their operation on Ridge Street from 55 beds to 114 beds and to double the size of the dining room to 120 seats. Charlottesville City Council has authorized another $3 million toward the ongoing capital campaign.

On Thursday at 11 a.m., the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services will hold a site plan conference for the project which was approved under the city’s 2003 zoning code via a special use permit. This will take place at the chapel at 207 Ridge Street.

“The purpose of this meeting is to provide the opportunity to become familiar with the applicant s development plans and to allow for comments to be made at the planning stages,” reads a public notice in the September 22, 2026 Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Resources:

• Preliminary Site Plan application on the city’s permit portal
• Certificate of Appropriateness application on the city’s permit portal
• Salvation Army Center for Hope capital campaign

The preliminary site plan has already been through two rounds of staff comments with the latest denial issued on September 2, 2026. It must be noted that the word “denial” simply means that an applicant has not yet demonstrated compliance with all of the technical guidelines.

“The proposed dumpster enclosure is directly adjacent to a storm inlet and upstream of the trench drain at the 4th St SW entrance, creating a concern with illicit discharge of pollutants from the dumpster into the City’s storm sewer system,” reads a comment from the utilities division.

The civil engineering firm working on the site plan responded in a letter dated September 28.

“We always strive to make sure drainage is not conveyed through a dumpster enclosure area,” wrote Riki van Niekerk of the Timmons Group. “In this case we have adjusted the grades and set an inlet behind the dumpster area.”

The project also needs the Board of Architectural Review to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness. A preliminary conference took place on September 15, 2026 and is on a long list of stories I’m still waiting to report from.

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