Week Ahead for July 6, 2020 (Alb/Cville/Greene)

Posted on by Sean Tubbs

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It’s back to another full week, but Charlottesville City Council’s summer break sets the tone for a relatively quiet five days.

Do you know of anything happening Thursday or Friday? How are you faring in these early days of middler summer? Drop me a line and let me know what you think the community should know.

Monday, July 6, 2020

There are four items on the agenda for the Albemarle County Architectural Review Board (ARB), from the latest section of the Brookhill development to a work session on the Form-Based Code for the area covered under the Rio-29 Small Area Plan.

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors approved the 277-acre Brookhill development north of Polo Grounds Road in November 2016 for a maximum of 1,550 residential units. Much of the project is under development and the ARB will consider the final site development plan for Blocks 9 through 11, which would see 85 new townhouse units. According to the July report from the Virginia Department of Transportation, Brookhill will have two miles of internal streets and will connect to Ashwood Boulevard. Intersection improvements at U.S. 29 and Polo Grounds Road are nearly complete. (VDOT report)

The second ARB item is a final site development plan for a plan to restore the D.S. Tavern at 3449 Ivy Road. The structure is on the National Register of Historic Places and may have been milepost zero for the original Three Notch’d Road. (staff report)

The third item is a work session for the proposed Sheetz planned for the northwest corner of U.S. 29 / Airport Road and Proffit Road. This project is across the street from a WaWa that has already received planning approvals. (staff report)

Finally, the ARB will have another work session on the Form-Based Code for Rio-29 on an eight-page memo on how future buildings are to be oriented. This document looks at case studies “that demonstrate the site design techniques and treatments applied to the outer perimeter of inward facing suburban redevelopment projects.” (memo)

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The Charlottesville School Board meets at 5 p.m. Ordinarily their meetings are not featured here, but the Board will take action on a recommended plan for returning to school in the fall. Superintendent Rosa Atkins is presenting a plan where students in Kindergarten through 6th grade would return to school four days a week. Students in 7th through 12th grade would only attend twice a week, rotating in two cohorts. In both cases, parents and guardians would have the option to only receive instruction online. Meanwhile, a group of staff and faculty have sent an open letter to Superintendent Rosa Atkins requesting that educational instruction remains entirely virtual in the fall. (Return to Learn Reopening Options for 2020-2021)

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The Louisa County Board of Supervisors also meets at 5 p.m. for an in-person meeting in the county administration building. Among the items is a request for a conditional use permit for an entertainment venue in the rural area.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

The Village of Rivanna is the least urban of the county’s designated growth areas, in part because residents there have sought to keep residential densities as close to one unit per acre as possible. Southern Development is seeking to develop 84 acres for a project called Breezy Hill and the project returns to the Albemarle County Planning Commission on Tuesday for a public hearing beginning at 6 p.m.

The Comprehensive Plan calls for less than two units per acre, and the current iteration of the development seeks a rezoning from Rural Areas to R-4. If you factor the entire acreage of the land, that would be a gross density of 1.9 units per acre. However, because several acres will be kept in open space, the project has a net density of 2.5 units per acre. For that and several other reasons, staff is recommending denial. (staff report)

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Earlier in the day, the Albemarle County Board of Zoning Appeals considers a request for an entrance sign for the middle section of the North Pointe development. The ten and a half foot structure would be within the right of way, which requires a special use permit. The ARB conditionally approved an application on June 15. Requests like this go to the BZA for approval rather than the Board of Supervisors. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. (agenda) (access information) (full packet)

North Pointe is now well under construction years after being rezoned in August 2006. In all, the development will have three entrances onto U.S. 29. While the project is mostly the work of the Great Eastern Management Company, another developer is responsible for a signalized restricted crossing U-turn (R-CUT) at Lewis and Clark Drive.

“We are looking at having lots, apartment sites and commercial sites available end of 2020 and beginning of 2021,” said David Mitchell, construction manager for GEMC.

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At 5 p.m. the Charlottesville Police Civilian Review Board will hold its second meeting since being at full membership. They’ll discuss the job description for the board’s future executive director and discuss the relationship between the city and its police department. (agenda and packet)

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

The Crozet Community Advisory Committee (CCAC) will meet at 7 p.m. for a virtual meeting about the Crozet Master Plan update. There will be a discussion of proposed land use changes in the update of the Future Land Use Map. That includes a request from the owners of White Gate Farm to change the land use designation from Industrial/Rural to residential. That was discussed by the CCAC in June. If there’s time left over, the CCAC will discuss bike and pedestrian connectivity in Crozet. (agenda) (meeting access info)

At 6 p.m., Albemarle will hold a virtual meeting that continues the conversation about Court Square. The event is a “guided conversation with community members sharing their stories about memorialization, public space, and Court Square.”

Thursday, July 9, 2020

While not strictly a government event, there’s an opportunity to listen in as a UVA professor of environmental sciences talks about “Natural Solutions to Climate Change.” Karen McGlathery, the director of UVA’s Environmental Resilience Institute as well as the director of the Virginia Coast Reserve Long Term Ecological Research program, will share her thoughts and will then answer live questions from the audience.

Important Note: Call-in number and passcode will be emailed to participants upon registration via the confirmation email. You must have these details to access this private call. (Register)

Sincerely,

Sean Tubbs
Field Representative – Albemarle, Charlottesville and Greene
The Piedmont Environmental Council
stubbs@pecva.org

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