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 November 15, 2021: Council to hold public hearing for Comprehensive Plan; Albemarle Supervisors to review 328-unit Rio Point project

There are only a few more complete weeks left in 2021, and this will be one of the busiest. While the biggest item is City Council’s public hearing on the Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan, there’s a lot crammed into the next four days. This newsletter is already at length, so let’s get right to it!

Loudoun’s Environmental Commission Needs Your Feedback

Loudoun’s Environmental Commission Needs Your Feedback

As Loudoun County grows, the board of supervisors has recognized the need for improving environmental sustainability, health and resilience. Protecting natural resources, preserving energy and pivoting to renewable alternatives are essential to those goals.

To that end, this year the board empaneled a new environmental commission, which began meeting in late July 2021.

Maddensville Historic Site, Civil War Memorial, is dedicated before a crowd of 200 in Culpeper

Maddensville Historic Site, Civil War Memorial, is dedicated before a crowd of 200 in Culpeper

On the stunningly sunny and crystal clear, crisp morning of Saturday, Nov. 6, just ahead of Veteran’s Day, some 200 people from far and wide came together in rural Culpeper County, Virginia to dedicate a new Civil War memorial site honoring three United States Colored Troops killed nearby in 1864 and the contributions of the family of a free Black man, Willis Madden.

2021 Photo Contest

2021 Photo Contest

we need your help to select the winners! Voting is easy — first, check out all the photos in the slideshow! Then, use the form to select your favorite finalist from each of our categories: Beautiful Landscapes, Native Plants and Wildlife, People and Places, and the Youth Category (ages 17 and under).

Week Ahead for November 8, 2021: Albemarle growth management on agenda for Crozet, Village of Rivanna, and Scottsville meetings

This is a busy week just days after a transformative election that resets the playing field for local government with a new Governor and a General Assembly split between Democrats and Republicans. Aside from discussion in Greene and Nelson of a statewide opioid abatement program, Virginia government isn’t on the agenda this week as local meetings.

National Parks, Rural Prince William Under Threat

National Parks, Rural Prince William Under Threat

As PEC’s deputy director of land use, I am writing to let you know about several local issues that have both regional and national implications. Put simply, the rural area of Prince William County, also known as the “Rural Crescent,” is under threat. Three different proposals are being considered, each unique in scope, but together represent the urbanization and industrialization of the remaining rural lands in Prince William County.

Halloween Bike Ride Tours Spooky Cville

Halloween Bike Ride Tours Spooky Cville

There were thrills and chills at the Halloween Social Bike Ride in Charlottesville on the evening of October 28, 2021. About two dozen riders, most of them in costumes, gathered at Peloton Station and rode a relaxed, six-mile route through Charlottesville neighborhoods and the University of Virginia grounds.