Wednesday, 1 March will be an interesting Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meeting; the afternoon session starts at 6pm.
My quick thoughts:
- How many of us will attend or email the Board about either of these?
- Albemarle and Charlottesville need more housing; the Old Ivy Road location is a great location, particularly as it’s close enough to benefit those seeking to walk or ride bicycles places (in other words, not be forced to drive everywhere), and especially if they can somehow work to solve the infrastructure dilemma on Old Ivy Road/Old Garth (21 Curves), 250. Maybe … limit parking to further encourage people who live there to not use cars?
- $551M budget; that’s a lot of money.
Attending these meetings is the best way to support or oppose something; those who show up have their voices heard. Commenting on Nextdoor, Twitter, FB, may serve the need to “feel” heard, but emailing or showing up to the Board are the absolute best ways to voice your opinion.
From Charlottesville Community Engagement
There are two public hearings in the evening session which begins at 6 p.m.
The first is on the $551.5 million budget proposed for Albemarle by County Executive Jeffrey Richardson. For those details, check out the most recent edition of the newsletter.
The second is for a rezoning for Old Ivy Residences. If the strategy with this timing is to find a way to get more people in to pay attention to the budget, it will likely pay off. Greystar Development is seeking a rezoning to allow up to 525 homes. For background, here are some recent stories:
- UVA making plans for Ivy Garden redevelopment, June 9, 2021
- Developer seeks rezoning for 525 units off of Old Ivy Road, August 4, 2021
- Places29-Hydraulic group gets first look at Greystar’s Old Ivy Residences project, November 16, 2021
- Albemarle Planning Commission to hold public hearing on Old Ivy Road rezoning, June 13, 2022
- Greystar asks for more time on Old Ivy Residences rezoning after Planning Commission public hearing, June 23, 2022
- New Darden “Vision Plan” includes student housing, September 20, 2022
- Albemarle Planning Commission recommends denial of Old Ivy Residences project, December 2, 2022
The Planning Commission’s denial was in part because of a concern about whether sufficient transportation projects would be in place to address the development’s impacts on road congestion. At play is a condition from a rezoning in 1985.
“The Commission recommended denial of the ZMA202100008 because it found that the Old Ivy Road traffic conditions, while different from 1985 when the Proffer in ZMA1985-21 was established, do not appear at a level of improvement to satisfy the condition precedent established by ZMA 1985-21 and address transportation concerns,” reads the staff report.
There is a new proffer associated with this rezoning that would commit an additional $500,000 in cash for a new receiving lane on the northbound on-ramp to the U.S. 250 bypass.
The Albemarle County Comp plan …
… is still underway; how many of you have visited the AC44 site, filled out the surveys, or attended a pop-up? Albemarle staff are doing amazing attempting outreach.
Continue reading “Albemarle Budget, Comp Plan, 500 Units in Ivy? And DCI Meeting”