This text was taken from an email alert sent out on June 5, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
For over 45 years, since Albemarle County designated the Rural Area and Development Areas for planning purposes, the county has pursued a policy that directs growth into the Development Areas where services exist and to protect water quality throughout the waterways that flow from the Blue Ridge Mountains into the county’s drinking water reservoirs. Known as the county’s Growth Management Policy, the practice has received strong public support for decades.
Today, we’re at an inflection point as discussions about expanding the Development Areas circulate during the Albemarle Comprehensive Plan (AC44) update. But the latest data shows that the current Development Areas are able to accommodate projected growth. Expanding the Development Areas now is not only unnecessary, but would compromise the county’s climate and resiliency goals and work to create an inclusive, walkable community. Read on to find out why.
Intentional Planning for Public Benefit
the county’s Biodiversity Action Plan. Map by Watsun Randolph/PEC.
The location and extent of today’s Development Areas (the urban ring around Charlottesville, the U.S. Route 29 North corridor, the Village of Rivanna, and Crozet) were chosen based on the protection of the water supply reservoirs and their connection to existing public water and sewer infrastructure — ensuring that these areas could accommodate dense growth in the future and preventing the high cost and environmental disruption of extending infrastructure into the Rural Area.
The County has had many discussions since the original Growth Management Policy was adopted about whether these boundaries should be altered. But PEC always comes back to these costs — to public health, quality of life, our local economy, and the environment. The value of healthy and protected watersheds and waterways for clean drinking water and recreational benefits, for instance, is estimated to be $1,000—$8,000 per acre per year.
How does the County’s current Growth Management Policy impact me?
- Protects our drinking water supply from contaminants from development while reducing downstream flooding
- Residents and visitors access and enjoy the county’s rural countryside without travelling through sprawl
- Allows natural landscapes to remain undeveloped or become farms for local food production or carbon-sequestering forestland. Once land is developed, there is no going back.
- Encourages investment in existing communities in the Development Areas, where funding can be used for sidewalks, bike lanes and transit improvements
- Encourages new and infill development in the Development Areas, including missing middle housing, where people are able to live close to work, school and play
- Allows more efficient deployment of essential services like water and sewer, schools, and fire protection
- Limits vehicle miles traveled which in turn limits carbon emissions and traffic and protects air quality
- Avoids tax increases that would be required to support service extensions such as water and sewer infrastructure into the Rural Area and future increases needed to maintain that expanded service
Growth Management Policy Supports Smart Growth
The current AC44 draft Growth Management Policy clearly states the “Development Areas and the Rural Area will have distinct boundaries, without low-density transition areas.” The draft growth management framework includes a Development Areas Utilization Review that would be undertaken every two years to unlock the capacity of the Development Areas to accommodate future growth, including for affordable housing.
As PEC has seen in Loudoun County, the creation of a “transition zone” between the rural and developed parts of the county, leads to sprawl, traffic and air quality impacts, and threatens the natural resources that the Rural Area was created to protect, including our water resources that are threatened by climate change.
The county conducted a Land Use Buildout Analysis in 2022, indicating that there is sufficient space available for development and redevelopment within the current Albemarle County Development Areas — even to accommodate the projected 30,000 new residents expected to come to the area by 2044. We should prioritize and incentivize dense, walkable/bikeable development with access to transit and open space within the current Development Areas, especially for affordable housing proposals.
The high cost of undeveloped land proximate to the Development Areas and the costs to taxpayers for extending water and sewer and public roads and transit, impacts to drinking water, aquatic communities, and the heat island effect, in addition to the loss of important natural resources and open space for public health are some additional reasons why expansion would not benefit Albemarle.
The county has reported that it will conduct another Buildout Analysis prior to completing the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update. Regardless of the outcome of this analysis, we will continue to advocate for smart growth and a strong Growth Management Policy.
Lastly, we are concerned by language in the proposed Growth Management Policy that could be interpreted as an invitation to propose development projects in the Rural Area.
- “Limited new development will occur in the Rural Area remainder of the County.”
- “Small-scale businesses and limited public services and infrastructure supporting existing communities will be supported while minimizing additional residential development in the Rural Area.”
Recently, the Board of Supervisors came very close to approving a large-scale residential subdivision in an extremely rural part of the county, despite staff recommendation for denial. This was surprising as it directly conflicted with the Growth Management Policy and many other aspects of the current Comprehensive Plan that support protection of the Rural Area. Housing should also not be uncoupled from transportation and services while planning because they cannot be uncoupled in residents’ lives. Owning and driving a car is not a possibility for everyone so building housing where services already exist reduces the need for car-dependency.
How You Can Help
Email the Board of Supervisors at [email protected] or find your supervisor to write them individually. You can also speak in person at the start of the Board’s Wednesday meetings, for matters not on the agenda.
Tell the Board of Supervisors you strongly support:
- A Growth Management Policy that protects Rural Area communities and resources and directs growth into the current
Development Areas - Addressing the impacts of proposed economic development initiatives, including but not limited to expanding the defense intelligence and biotech/biomedical economic sectors, in the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update
Tell the Board of Supervisors you strongly oppose:
- Proposals to expand the Development Areas in the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update
- Lower-density residential transition areas outside of the current Development Areas
Relatedly, the Albemarle Economic Development Office has released a survey about their Strategic Plan. We highly encourage you to take it. Our last email laid out several transformational economic development projects that have received little public attention but will likely have outsized impacts on the community. This survey closes soon, Wednesday, June 11, so have your voice heard! There will be a virtual Lunch & Learn Friday, June 6 on the topic.
Additionally, you can send this email to a friend and have them join our mailing list to stay informed on what’s going on in Albemarle and Charlottesville and ways to get involved.
Thank you!
Rob McGinnis, PLA FASLA
Senior Land Use Field Representative
Albemarle & Greene Counties
[email protected]
(434) 962-9110