A new zoning code adopted by Charlottesville City Council in December 2023 fundamentally altered the rules to give property owners more development rights than before. In most cases, developers do not have to ask for additional permission from elected officials for additional height and residential density.
Projects over a certain size do require a little more documentation before staff in the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services will grant final approvals. One of them seeks the reduction in parking and promotion of alternate forms of transportation.
“Any project with over 50,000 square feet of gross floor area must submit a Traffic Demand Management (TDM) plan, prepared by a qualified professional with demonstrated experience in transportation planning, traffic engineering, or comparable field, to be approved by the Administrator,” reads Section 4.5.4 of the Development Code.
Charlottesville’s Development Manual requires a community meeting to be held if such a plan is required.
The Stony Point Development Group is seeking to build a third phase of Dairy Central in between Preston Avenue and West Street and have filed plans including the traffic demand management plan.
“The existing site is occupied by multiple surface parking lots and approximately 38,000 square feet of commercial space,” reads a description in the TDM plan accepted by NDS on October 22. “The proposed redevelopment includes 275 multifamily dwelling units, a 133-room hotel, and a parking deck.”
The property is zoned Corridor Mixed Use 3 and allows that level of development. However, the project is just short of the threshold required to obtain a “special exception permit” due the property’s presence in the “Core Neighborhood Overlay District.”
The community meeting has already been held.
The plan itself has been developed by the firm Gorove Slade Transportation Planners and Engineers. The 22-page document draws from several other city plans to describe how people get around the area as well as more recent projects known as the 2025 Quickbuild Projects. (access the plan here)
“These improvements include a speed cushion / table along 10th Street between Preston Avenue and Henry Avenue and Charlton Avenue between 10th Street NW and Rose Hill Drive, mini-roundabouts on Rose Hill Drive at the intersection of Charlton Avenue and Madison Avenue, as well as intersection improvements at 10th Street NW and Page Street (including new crosswalks, curb ramps, rapid flashing beacons), which are categorized as Urgent Transportation Improvements,” reads page 7 of the plan.
Charlottesville Area Transit routes 8 and 9 run past the site and one image in the document depicts several bus stops within a quarter-mile range.
The city is in the midst of creating a mobility plan so the TDM plan references older studies such as the 2015 Bike and Pedestrian Plan which included a metric intended to gauge perceived safety levels.
“The level of stress experienced by bicyclists along Preston Avenue adjacent to the site is classified as Level 3 (moderate stress) and along Grady Avenue is classified as Level 4 (high stress),” reads page 8 of the plan.
The plan describes enhancements that will be made to sidewalks along the perimeter of the property and along a new internal street. References are made to an appendix of the 2021 Comprehensive Plan and claims that planning is in the works for corridor wide improvements of Preston Avenue.
The project calls for 549 spaces for both hotel guests and those who will live in the apartments.
“The proposed redevelopment will provide a total of 30 short-term and 298 long-term bicycle spaces in the parking garage, including 11 long-term bicycle spaces for the hotel use, exceeding the minimum requirements outlined in the Development Code,” reads page 18 of the plan.
The final site plan for the project has been through one round of review with a new submission made on October 12. Part of the new package involves a formal request for a waiver from streetscape requirements.
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