This text was taken from an email alert sent out on October 13, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
After four years of diligent work that included countless hours of community meetings, pop-ups, work sessions, surveys, and public hearings, this Wednesday, Oct. 15, the Board of Supervisors is expected to adopt the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan. Updating this important document that shapes the future of Albemarle County for the next 20 years in a way that maintains foundational policies for people and the environment has required PEC’s highly focused attention from start to finish.
Even in just the last week of an otherwise robust process a single landowner was able to request — and be granted — a last-second change to the future land use map over the Planning Commission’s recommendation to not revise the map in this case.
Despite the extensive positive outcomes that PEC has seen come out of this planning process (our next email will include a full list), we’re concerned that this last-minute change, which ignores and undermines the integrity of the process to accommodate a single landowner, could be a warning sign for the future.
Comprehensive Plans are not simple formalities, they are designed with extensive planning and community involvement. We look forward to celebrating the major successes of this plan while ensuring that it is properly implemented and, as always, that the community is represented going forward.
Albemarle Comprehensive Plan
Final Public Hearing
Wednesday, Oct. 15 @ 6 p.m.
County Office Building, Lane Auditorium
Thank you to everyone who wrote letters and sent emails to the Board of Supervisors or Planning Commission, spoke at work sessions or public hearings, filled out questionnaires and surveys online or in-person, asked questions at community meetings, or reached out to PEC in the last four years to let us know what you’d like to see in this great community we call home.
The plan is better because of you.
View the full document draft here →
Major Takeaways
Growth Management Policy remains largely intact
The Growth Management Policy is critical to protecting Albemarle’s Rural Area and natural resources from sprawl and creating walkable, connected neighborhoods in Development Areas by centering density where services already exist.
Because of its wide-ranging implications, maintaining this long-standing and widely-supported policy was PEC’s chief concern during the AC44 process.
Renewed Focus on the Value of the Rural Area
The Rural Area represents 95% of Albemarle County’s geographic area and includes rural communities and many of the area’s natural, cultural, historical (and therefore economically important) resources. Despite this significance, county staff were not initially intending to plan for it on the same level as the Development Areas. As the goals and landscapes of these rural and peri-urban areas are distinct from each other, PEC advocated alongside community members in rural Albemarle from the beginning to ensure that a Rural Area Plan be created in AC44. Thanks to this advocacy, now there will be.
PEC’s Concerns
Last minute Future Land Use Change
At the final AC44 Planning Commission Public Hearing, two landowners associated with Sweetspot LLC, parcels located west of U.S. Route 29 near the I-64 interchange, requested that the future land use map be amended because they had limited developer interest in their industrial-use property.
Despite the Planning Commission’s recommendation that a change in land use should be addressed through a Zoning Map Amendment, the draft future land use map, which had been the point of many, many community discussions over the past three years – was altered by the Board of Supervisors to address Sweetspot’s request at the last minute, thereby effectively limiting public comment and detailed analysis of the impacts of the land use change.
The community deserves the best possible approach to planning. We are concerned that such an approach sets a precedent for similar one-off land use changes in the future, potentially altering the overarching Comprehensive Plan on an incremental basis.
Economic Development Priorities
The Albemarle County Economic Development Office’s recently adopted Strategic Plan, integrated into the Comprehensive Plan, guides economic development that likely will alter Albemarle’s landscape. The drivers of economic development and land use changes include large-scale projects like Rivanna Futures tied to the proposed defense and intelligence Innovation Corridor from Fauquier to Albemarle County, and UVA’s Manning Institute of Biotechnology, the Cville BioHub, and the recently announced $4.5 billion AstraZeneca manufacturing facilities, all part of the Commonwealth’s Project VITAL.
AC44 is essential to ensuring that the county anticipates and plans for the foreseeable impacts of projects like these and actively supports the community’s other priorities. Even after the plan’s adoption, PEC will remain focused on the wider implications for land use, smart growth planning, transportation, infrastructure, affordable housing, protection of natural resources, and quality of life in our community.
What is the Albemarle Comprehensive Plan (AC44)?
The AC44 Comprehensive Plan is a document outlining the vision for Albemarle County for the next 20 years. It provides recommendations for how, where, and if the County should grow, support the local economy, protect and enhance natural resources and conservation, provide accessible housing and transportation options, and much more.
Comprehensive Plans are supposed to be updated every five years. Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan was last updated in 2015. AC44 is scheduled to be adopted by the Board of Supervisors Wednesday.
Looking to the Future
PEC and Albemarle County have invested tremendous resources into a plan that we are largely happy with. After Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors vote, we will look to the future.
Our focus will shift to ensuring that the Comprehensive Plan is implemented as intended. This will include maintaining and improving the county’s conservation programs, implementing the Stream Health Initiative, updating the Biodiversity Action Plan, initiating the Rural Area Land Use Plan, crafting sensible transportation strategies, address critical affordable housing needs, and finding ways to promote smart growth within the Development Areas, especially by modernizing the county’s zoning ordinance, which is critically important to implementing AC44.
We will also pay attention to the economic development projects that will shape our community’s future, starting with the recently announced $4.5 billion AstraZeneca pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities and projects listed above.
The Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development will be speaking to the Albemarle County Economic Development Authority about the Innovation Corridor Tuesday, Oct. 14. You can join virtually here.
Write to your Supervisor or [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] to thank them for listening to the community’s concerns about AC44 and encourage them to continue to do so by implementing the plan in a timely manner.
See you at the hearing,
Rob McGinnis, PLA FASLA
Senior Land Use Field Representative
Albemarle & Greene Counties
[email protected]
(434) 962-9110