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.
Against All Odds: Re-Discovering Walker Cobler and His Legacy
“…the presence of an African American cemetery here is uncovering a largely forgotten history that will change the way we think about the African American legacy in Madison County.”
Week Ahead for February 8, 2021: No Slow Week Edition
So far, 2021 has moved at a fast pace. Somehow this week, it appears as if there might be a small break. Yet, each week I put this newsletter together, I find there’s always enough to write about in our community. Our country is built upon thousands of municipal meetings and this work is intended to help you know what’s coming up so you can get involved.
An Albemarle / Charlottesville Update
Despite the challenge of the ongoing pandemic and the limitations of working at home, there is still a lot of positive conservation and land-use work we’ve been able to accomplish at the local level.
Week Ahead for February 1, 2021: Fresh Snow edition
A new month brings a fresh start, one day after the first significant snowfall in Charlottesville in some years. As it is somewhat of a snow day, let’s just get right into it without any pontificating!
Thank as always to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their support of this newsletter’s creation each week.
Warrenton 2040 Plan Update – the Wait is Over, But Has Anything Changed?
On January 26 the Warrenton Planning Commission held a work session on the postponed Warrenton 2040 Master Plan and the Commercial Zoning Text Amendment. Overall, we learned that the Warrenton 2040 Plan is largely the same as it was 6 months ago.
General Assembly Update & Action Alert – Week 3
I want to start by reporting some good news, and then follow it with a request for you to take action on two budget amendments—one to increase farmland protection and the other to address a critical lack of representation within Virginia’s cultural resource database.
Action Alert: Righting a Wrong – Help Bring Untold Histories to Light
Preserving historic resources is crucial to understanding our nation’s history. However, historic resources related to African-American and indigenous communities are woefully underrepresented in Virginia’s state database. This has resulted in important resources being overlooked or worse yet, irretrievably lost, and has meant these communities are rarely included as part of larger historic district conversations.
Action Alert: Protecting Farmland Now and For the Future
Farmland lost is farmland lost forever. Budget amendment 97 #2h (Gooditis) would provide an additional $2 million to the Farmland Preservation Fund grant program (current funding is only $250,000), providing much-needed matching funds and encouraging other localities to adopt Purchase of Development Rights programs of their own.
Week Ahead for January 25, 2021: Greenwood cell tower, Pantops hotel, and school budgets
Each week, this newsletter seeks to help you understand what’s happening at the local level in and around greater Charlottesville. Governments at all levels in our federal system have been incredibly active at a time when many continue to ask questions about how our democracy works.