May 31 is the fifth Tuesday of the month and no regular meetings are scheduled, but Nelson County kicks off their Comprehensive Plan process. Despite being a four-day week, this one seems quite full.
Our Region
PEC focuses on nine counties and one city in the northern Piedmont of Virginia: Albemarle, Charlottesville, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock.
We also team with local organizations to promote thriving communities and healthy natural resources in a much larger region, including the Shenandoah Valley, the central Piedmont, and the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Corridor. In addition, we are proud to serve as fiscal sponsor of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, an organization that focuses on land use and policy in the greater Washington D.C. area.
Week Ahead for May 23, 2022: Design public hearing for H29 projects, including pedestrian bridge to cross an eight-lane highway; Big meeting for the future of regional transit
What does it take to build and maintain a functional civilization? There are likely many answers and many perspectives, but in this case I’m talking about physical requirements. People who live and work somewhere need to be able to get around safely, and they also need infrastructure to be in place for the essentials of being alive. What is required and who makes the decisions?
PEC Calls on U.S. Senators To Stop Mountain Valley Pipeline
On Earth Day, The Piedmont Environmental Council joined 24 groups and 17 members of the General Assembly in a letter to U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner unequivocally outlining the environmental and social justice impacts of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
Week Ahead for May 16, 2022: Both Albemarle and Charlottesville to consider parkland acquisition; Citizen transportation group to be briefed on climate action plans
It takes about eight hours to produce this newsletter each week and when I start work I’m not sure if there will be a theme or not. Local government touches so many aspects of our lives, and when you look at all of the meetings in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District each week, patterns for each installment emerge.
Loudoun Update – Rt. 15 North & Zoning Ordinance
This Wednesday, May 11 at 6 p.m., the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing about the related Route 15 North Comprehensive Plan Amendment, which calls for:
- Widening the road to four lanes between Montresor Road and the village of Lucketts,
- Building a bypass (on one side or the other) around Lucketts
- Adding a median to the two-lane section of Route 15 north of the village to St. Clair Lane.
Week Ahead for May 9, 2022: Charlottesville PC to review 390-bedroom building on Jefferson Park Avenue; Nelson County Supervisors to resume discussion of Ridgecrest Mobile Home Park
So far there have been 18 weeks in 2022. What significant things have happened already? This regular weekly newsletter is only concerned with what’s coming ahead ahead in the next several days, and always, there’s a lot.
Madison County plans May 15 event to announce and present newly digitized Madison County land condemnation records related to creation of Shenandoah National Park
In partnership with James Madison University, and with funding from the Madison County Historical Society, The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) has completed the digitization of thousands of legal documents related to the Commonwealth’s 1930s-era condemnation of private lands in Madison County for the creation of Shenandoah National Park (SNP).
PEC Signs Letter Asking National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board to Reduce Transportation Emissions, Sprawl
On May 1, PEC joined 34 other groups around Virginia, D.C. and Maryland in signing on to a joint letter from the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) to make necessary and feasible changes to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TBP)’s Visualize 2045 plan.
Week Ahead for May 2, 2022: City Council to be briefed on homelessness; Albemarle design review panel to review Premier Circle projects to provide homes
For the first time in a while, the first week of a month lands in such a way that there are meetings of both the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council.
Earth Day Tree Planting at the Volgenau Property
Last week, with the help of 56 volunteers, we planted 550 trees along the banks of Thumb Run on the Volgenau property in Fauquier County.