Albemarle, Charlottesville, and UVA leaders discuss regional cooperation at annual joint meeting

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council meet very rarely but when they do there is a chance to get a glimpse into how the two localities work together.

Even more rare are events where the top leadership of the University of Virginia is on hand.

All three were in place on October 6 for a joint meeting in CitySpace that took place about a week after a delegation from the Chamber of Commerce for both Chapel Hill and Carrboro in North Carolina visited this area.

Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson said the trip was an energizing one coming just a few months after the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce led a trip to the peer community.

“They were focused on benchmarking and learning in the areas of affordable housing, downtown vitality, economic development, university and community partnerships, workforce development, and strategic planning,” Richardson said. “And that’s not all that they came to look at. Hosting this visit pushed our respective organizations and our community, almost like cramming for a comprehensive final exam.”

Richardson said the exchange of ideas comes at a time when Albemarle, Charlottesville, and the University of Virginia are all preparing new strategic plans. That offers a chance to address regional cooperation.

A key policy that influences relations between Albemarle and Charlottesville is the 1982 revenue-sharing agreement in which the city agreed to stop annexing land in Albemarle. Ever since, Albemarle taxpayers have paid Charlottesville based on a formula. Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders reported that the city has received a FY2026 payment of nearly $20.1 million.

“A little more than $11.5 million was allocated to the operating portion of the city budget, and the remaining $8.6 million was allocated to the capital improvement program,” Sanders said. “The city continues to prioritize the deployment of these funds in ways that demonstrate a direct and mutual benefit to the taxpayers of Albemarle County, while also investing in the priorities needed to ensure a stable and strong city continues to churn in the center of the much larger county and university that surrounds it.”

Leadership from the University of Virginia rounded out the meeting with remarks from J.J. Davis, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. She said the university loves the idea of further collaboration on housing, transportation, and other issues such as providing child care.

“We are in the midst of a new Charlottesville Child Care Center, again underpinning a huge gift from the LaCrosse family,” Davis said. “A $43 million gift, to be exact, will help allow local partners to be able to have access to affordable childcare right in the city of Charlottesville.”

Davis also drew attention to major investments underway such as the $380 million Manning Institute of Biotechnology at the Fontaine Research Park as well as the $205 million Center for the Arts on Emmet Street.

Transit talk

The first major topic on the agenda was transportation, a subject I also covered for C-Ville Weekly. A main takeaway was a request from Charlottesville Area Transit for the University of Virginia to voluntarily report their ridership to the federal government in order to attract more funding for the city-run agency.

“If we are allowed to partner, or the University itself voluntary reporting, it will help us to exceed the categories in the passenger miles traveled,” said CAT Director Garland Williams.

Homelessness intervention

The second major topic on the agenda was a review of interventions to address homelessness. The City of Charlottesville is in the second month of a year-long contract with a firm to run a low-barrier shelter at 2000 Holiday Drive. Assistant City Manager Sam Roman said this is an area for regional collaboration.

“As we begin to address homelessness, we know that homelessness and its intervention is not just based in the city of Charlottesville,” Roman said. “It knows no boundaries. So it would only make sense for us to approach this from a collaborative posture.”

The low-barrier shelter is currently only using one floor of 2000 Holiday Drive but the plan is to equip the whole three-story building with resources and case management.

Kaki Dimock, Albemarle’s Chief of Human Services, gave an update on the creation of the community’s investment in permanent supportive housing. Support Works Housing opened up such a facility in 2012 at the 60-unit Crossings at Fourth Street and a second will open later this year at the site of the former Red Carpet Inn on U.S. 29.

“It is fortuitous that the timing for Holiday Drive parallels the timing of an opening of a permanent supportive housing project called Vista 29,” Dimock said. “And it includes 80 units of permanent supportive housing, 77 of which will be studio apartments, three of which will be one bedrooms. Twelve of those 80 units will be fully accessible, which is really important for this particular population, and 67 of which have been specifically reserved for people who meet this definition of chronic homelessness.”

The $26 million project has been funded through a variety of sources including Albemarle and Charlottesville. Albemarle will provide ongoing project-based vouchers to help cover operational costs at Vista-29.

Closed-door LUEPC versus open-door PACC

The third topic was a report on the closed-door Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee. This replaced a public body known as the Planning and Coordination Council which City Council and the Board of Supervisors agreed to dissolve in late 2019.

That particular fact was not mentioned by Jeffrey Dumars, Albemarle’s Director of Facilities and Environmental Services and member of LUEPC.

“The Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee was established to share and coordinate land use and development plans and projects, consider environmental and infrastructure issues facing our community,” Dumars said. “And from time to time, we advance ideas and solutions that support broader regional mutual advantage.”

In February, Dumars said the group talked about regional infrastructure coordination and that has led to more ad hoc communications such as in the area around the Fontaine Research Park. I cobbled together a story from the presentations shared in the minutes.

“A lot of work at the Fontaine Research Park by UVA, VDOT and the city have significant roadway projects, and there’s just ad hoc coordination needed for common right-of-way impacts and to confirm vital connections are completed and coordinated between construction projects,” Dumars said. “And this happened on an ad hoc basis, just making sure we’re bringing sidewalks together where we need to in the different projects.”

The justification for LUEPC dates back to the 1986 Three-Party Agreement between Albemarle, Charlottesville, and UVA. The Fontaine Research Park is what is known as Area B. In January 1986, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors had voted 4-2 to approve a shopping center at the location over the objections of UVA.

City Councilor Michael Payne said he found LUEPC’s reporting work to be challenging given that he cannot review the meetings himself.

“There [are] not meeting minutes in terms of any summary of what was discussed by any individual or what, if any, decisions happened,” Payne said. “The semiannual reports are about 700 words and again don’t have any summaries of discussions. It’s just topic, speaker, and then a summary of what the committee itself is.”

Dumars said staff has found it valuable to be able to have private and frank conversations but better reporting could be explored.

City Councilor Lloyd Snook shared some of Payne’s concerns and said that LUEPC is not a place for anyone to go to learn how planning works.

“I have no idea what you guys do,” Snook said. “I have no idea what kind of joint planning efforts may be going on,”I often ask about them. Sometimes people in the city government will tell me, well, we talked a little bit about that at LUPEC. Most often the answer is, well, we don’t really do any of that.”

Snook said he would benefit from knowing more details about how the county manages growth or where the University plans to put students. He said many problems may not be solved without more public discussion.

Supervisor Ann Mallek of Albemarle’s White Hall district is one of two remaining Supervisors who were in office when PACC was dissolved in favor of LUEPC. She suggested there do need to be more public meetings with leaders from all three entities.

“Having been part of the old system for about ten years, while there wasn’t any active debate and votes and things like that, there was a lot of discussion going on,” Mallek said. “And sometimes issues were thorny and scary, and probably people wish they weren’t in public, but that’s life. And so in some ways, you build a lot of confidence when you’re struggling with things and get things talked about.”

Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District voted in favor of dissolving PACC in part because he felt that body was charged with coordinating decisions made by elected officials. He said he gets a lot of information from being on the Central Virginia Housing Partnership and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

“We hear illuminating things like Louisa County’s two months ago discussion about homeless— homelessness and encampment, understanding that some of their residents were there and and actually did it in a sincere and genuine way that spoke to a regional collaboration that went beyond Charlottesville and Albemarle,” Gallaway said. “So, you know, that’s where I learned about it, and that’s all public, that’s all open.”

For more on that particular discussion, read Tammy Purcell’s coverage from August 10 of a discussion of allowing small churches to open humanitarian shelters for a small amount of people.

Payne said he does not have any issue getting information about Albemarle County.

“Where I see the friction point, where there’s less transparency and opportunity for community input is UVA decisions,” Payne said. “And maybe LUPEC isn’t the body. Maybe there are other models, like town and gown committees, that other communities have done.”

Davis said it is important for the local governments to understand the scale of the University of Virginia with a workforce of nearly 40,000 people.

“So a $7 billion operating entity with 17 appointed Board of Visitors,” Davis said. “They meet four to six times a year. We do have Jeff and Sam and I meeting regularly with the president. So there is active communication and ongoing dialogue. I think the second thing to understand is we are always willing to meet and we talk constantly. So I guess perhaps not to the Council directly or to the Supervisors, but we will always afford opportunity if there are questions or comments or concerns. But again, we are very large.”

Those meetings of the UVA Board of Visitors are live-streamed but not made available to the public when they are concluded.

Payne said he understands that Charlottesville’s budget pales in comparison to that of UVA, but announcements such as the development of the Manning Institute have impacts on city residents and city infrastructure.

“I just think there’s an opportunity for the community and elected bodies to kind of all be in more sustained, structured, direct conversations with the university to help navigate some of those things in terms of, you know, quality or even just transportation problems that these things may create along with the revenue and growth,” Payne said.

Davis agreed but added that relations are better than when she arrived in her position nine years ago. She pointed to cooperation and coordination on public safety issues, for instance.

Supervisor Fred Missel of the Samuel Miller District is in a unique position as his day job is as Director of Design and Development for the University of Virginia Foundation which is itself a creation of the Three Party Agreement. He served on LUEPC before being elected to the Board and had served on the PACC technical committee.

“I had never witnessed until being part of LUPEC as much open communication about city, county, and University projects and the impacts that they would have on transportation, education, schools, etc., etc.,” Missel said. “That’s where, that’s where the work happens. I get what you’re saying, because you’re maybe not aware that that’s happening, right? But having been a part of it, I can tell you that it is.”

Missel said there is perhaps an opportunity for better communications from what is happening both at LUEPC and in University planning in general.

A brief discussion on the future of the revenue-sharing agreement took place at the end of the meeting. Pruitt said many in Albemarle are pushing the Board to renegotiate or otherwise make changes to a mutual decision made over 40 years ago. Other constituents are pushing for Albemarle to spend $10 million on housing to match the target the city hopes to spend annually.

“I would suggest it is getting to the point where I think it hurts some of our ability to really deliver on certain shared priorities,” Pruitt said. “I’m specifically thinking about housing. It is harder for us to find the marginal dollar to fund our housing trust fund than I would like, and it is something that is not lost on me that more than double our goal of our housing trust fund is delivered to the city every year.”

What happens next? From me, more reporting if I can keep the lights on.

Take a look at the meeting here.

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