Join the Piedmont Mobility Alliance March 5 & 6, 2026 for the 6th Active Mobility Summit!
Parks and Trails
Virginia Trails Alliance January 2026 Meeting
PEC is hosting the January meeting of the Virginia Trails Alliance (VTA).
Ask Albemarle County Leaders to Fund Quality, Connected Communities and Resource Protection
This text was taken from an email alert sent out on December 18, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
We’re delighted Albemarle County has completed its AC44 Comprehensive Plan, which will guide development, conservation and investment for a generation in ways that reflect residents’ values and aspirations. But comprehensive plans are only guides. Budgets are where localities demonstrate their actual priorities. And you, residents of Albemarle County, have the ability to weigh in on what should be included in next year’s budget.
Recent presentations from county leaders have highlighted several priorities, including connectivity, park access and climate action, that PEC supports. We want to ensure that significant funding goes toward those and a few other items not mentioned but that also meet the county’s strategic goals.
With the recent focus on economic development, we should ensure the community remains a place for everyone. Albemarle’s recent and future economic success is attributable to its high quality of life and commitment to protecting the environment and addressing climate change. These attract investment and are the bases for long-term prosperity for the county and its people. They need to be included in the budget.
PEC would like to see the following priorities robustly funded in the FY 27 Budget:
- Multimodal connectivity in Albemarle County, mainly via the Transportation Leveraging Program, which includes improvements for walking, biking and public transit.
- Stream Health Initiative, which protects aquatic habitats and helps ensure a clean drinking water supply for residents.
- Implementation of the county’s Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through transportation changes, energy efficiency, renewable energy and natural resource protection.
- Greenways Program, which provides access to fresh air and multimodal transportation options.
- Acquisition of Conservation Easements (ACE) program, which helps landowners of modest means conserve their farmland, keeping family farms, wildlife habitat and natural carbon sinks intact.
- Affordable housing through Housing Albemarle and other programs that allow people who work and grow up here to stay here.
Albemarle residents were very vocal in guiding the recently adopted Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan (AC44) to focus on quality, connected communities and the protection of natural resources. Every time they have been asked, residents of both Albemarle and Charlottesville have affirmed that they are willing to pay for these things. The budget should reflect that imperative.
The outlined programs also reflect PEC’s Strategic Plan to create stronger, more sustainable communities and to conserve and restore lands and waters across our nine-county region.
FY 2027 Budget Timeline
- December 2025: County staff is drafting the budget and looking to hear about what should be prioritized. The sooner you reach out to them, the better.
- Mid-February 2026: County Executive will release a draft budget for review. It is best to communicate prior to then, before the budget is largely formalized.
- Early March 2026: Public Hearing on draft budget. We’ll be in touch about how to participate.
- April 2026: Budget expected to be adopted following work sessions and a final Public Hearing.
Email the county at [email protected] and the Board of Supervisors at [email protected], and cc the Planning Commission at [email protected] to encourage them to implement these programs with funding to make them a reality.
As we head off into the holidays and a well-deserved break, thank you all for continuing to advocate for a better community this year. We’ve accomplished a lot, now let’s make sure it gets funded!
More soon ~
Peter Krebs
Albemarle & Charlottesville Community Advocacy Manager
[email protected]
(434) 465-9869
P.S. Save the date for the 6th annual Active Mobility Summit, Thursday, March 5 and Friday March 6, 2026 at The Wool Factory. Details and registration coming soon!
General Assembly Snapshot: 2026
The Virginia General Assembly will convene for a 60-day session beginning Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. PEC staff have co-authored several briefing papers that form the framework of the Virginia Conservation Network’s legislative priorities. Below, we break down some of the key issues we are tracking in the upcoming session.
A Tale of Two Bridges
Last week, we welcomed a long-awaited pedestrian bridge over U.S. Route 29! On the other side of town, however, VDOT unveiled a new proposal for the planned Fifth Street bridge over Interstate 64 that would not include bike infrastructure. Take action today!
Halloween Bike Ride, E-Bike Opportunities, New Pedestrian Bridge
This text was taken from an email alert sent out on October 28, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Mobility Advocates and Allies:
I can’t believe the Loop de Ville was a month ago!
It was very fun and I’ll always remember it. What’s even more exciting is that people keep telling me that it introduced them to new trails and to the community. I wrote a blog post about how the annual trailfest encourages more people to explore area trails by emphasizing – and learning from — the social aspects of outdoor exploration.
Now as October transitions to November I’d like to invite you to explore town on one of my favorite group bike rides, to check out two e-bike opportunities and to celebrate a new pedestrian bridge that will cross one of the area’s worst barriers and save lives.
Halloween Bike Ride
Sunday, Nov. 2, 3:30 – 6 p.m.
Charlottesville Community Bikes (917 #D Preston Avenue)
Costumes are encouraged for this late-afternoon, family-friendly ride. We’ll mainly use quiet neighborhood streets to visit a few spooky locations in town, finding fellowship and safety in numbers. The pace will be slow, suitable for anyone who is capable of staying on their bike for about an hour (with plenty of breaks).
As always we need volunteers to help with the ride and hanging flyers
(English | Spanish) around town.
—
Two E-Bike Opportunities
By helping you conquer hills, making it easier to maintain a steady pace and eliminating the need for a wardrobe change after your ride, e-bikes can change your bicycling equation in our hilly region. That’s why Charlottesville is offering $1,000 vouchers for e-bike purchases to city residents.
The deadline for the next drawing is this Friday, Oct. 31.
—
E-Bike Demo
Wednesday, Oct. 29, noon – 2 p.m.
Ting Pavilion on the Downtown Mall
If you’d like to try an e-bike, stop by the Ting Pavilion on Wednesday. The
Cville E-bike Lending Library will be on hand with several different models with various configurations and price points.
—
Pedestrian Bridge Ribbon Cutting
Thurs., Nov. 13, 10 – 11 a.m.
U.S. Route 29 at Zan Road; park at Burton’s Grill (2010 Bond St.)
VDOT has announced that the long-awaited pedestrian bridge over U.S. Route 29 at Zan Road will finally be completed October 31. This new bridge is technically located in both Charlottesville and Albemarle County, at the core of the combined urban area. It will link major existing commercial areas, where many people live today and many more are expected in the future.
In the meantime, it will make it safer to cross one of the area’s most intractable barriers. Join us as we celebrate this critical link in the wider regional network that will make daily life easier and safer.
This email combines both advocacy opportunities and social events because I see the two as deeply connected. I make that point in the blog post I referenced at the top of this email. By working together we inspire and learn from one another. That moves projects forward and makes them better, improving physical connectivity and social cohesion in a positive cycle.
I hope to experience that wheel turning together with you at either the E-bike Demo, the Halloween Ride or the long-awaited Ribbon Cutting!
Peter Krebs
Albemarle & Charlottesville Community Advocacy Manager
[email protected]
(434) 465-9869
p.s. Here’s an additional way to get more involved with local issues in Albemarle County this week. There are Community Advisory Committees for each of the seven urban areas in the county and are an important avenue to learn about and discuss upcoming issues, projects and developments. They are all meeting at once this Thursday.
All-Community Advisory Committee Meeting
Thurs. Oct. 30, 6 – 8 p.m.
Albemarle County Office Building (401 McIntire Rd.)
Loop de ‘Ville Creates Community, Outdoors
More than 350 people braved a rainy day to take part in the Loop de ’Ville Sept. 23, 2025. The full-day, 20-mile adventure is organized by a coalition of groups seeking to draw more people outdoors, specifically to experience Charlottesville’s Rivanna Trail.
A legacy of conservation and community at risk in Fauquier County
From their storied pasts to the present day, the Fauquier County towns of Remington, Bealeton and the many unique crossroad communities in the surrounding region have been characterized by their rural charm. And for decades, The Piedmont Environmental Council has been committed to collaborating with these local communities on conservation, land use planning, historic preservation and public access to nature. But as pressure for massive data center complexes spreads beyond Northern Virginia into the Piedmont’s special rural communities, we worry the progress and investments we and many others have made toward conserving, enhancing and preserving these communities will be lost forever.
1990s | PEC opposed the Fauquier Forward plan that would have widened Virginia State Route 28 and replaced the agricultural economy through that area with suburbs. Instead, we advocated for an alternative vision of conservation and helped create the county’s Purchase of Development Rights program, which pays landowners to relinquish development rights on their properties, thus supporting farmers, preserving the environmental and economic benefits of agriculture and preventing costly sprawl. Since then, Fauquier’s PDR program has become a model for other places, creating an important tool for landowners who want to keep their land in farming.
2006 | PEC helped the county acquire Rappahannock Station Battlefield Park, preserving this critical battlefield for a future public park and recreation area near the town of Remington. PEC supported development of a master plan for the park and continues to advocate for walking trails and interpretive signage that will tell the important history of the town and this historic battlefield.
2017 | In support of Remington’s effort to strengthen tourism and enhance pedestrian safety, PEC received a PATH Foundation grant to develop a plan called Remington Walks. This plan to rejuvenate Main Street with walking trails, town signage, pedestrian-friendly connectivity and more was developed with input gathered during community meetings and walking audits with residents. Remington Walks was adopted into Remington’s comprehensive plan and has been a guide and supportive document for several subsequent projects, including a gazebo next to the town hall, completed trail connections to Margaret Pierce Elementary and an improved railroad crossing accessible for strollers and wheelchairs downtown.
2021 | PEC and numerous partners set about creating an Upper Rappahannock River Water Trail that provides much-needed public access at several points along this Virginia-designated scenic river. In August 2021, we helped cut the ribbon on the new Rector Tract public canoe and kayak launch a short walk from downtown Remington. Open dawn to dusk, this launch closes a 25-mile gap in public access to the river between Riverside Preserve and Kelly’s Ford in Culpeper County.
2021 | Waterloo Bridge over the Rappahannock River is the uppermost point of the historic Rappahannock Canal, an important historic resource and a unique community treasure. Built in 1878, it was closed in 2014 and slated for replacement by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Advocating for its restoration, rather than replacement, PEC invested in a consultant to put forward a restoration alternative, held numerous community meetings, pushed VDOT to consider other options, and, with the financial help of the Hitt family, was able to fully restore the oldest metal truss bridge still standing in Virginia today.
2021 | PEC established a native plant garden at C.M. Crockett Park in Midland. As a part of our efforts to promote native landscaping practices, we applied for a grant from Kortlandt Fund of the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation to purchase the native plants for the project. We also designed the garden and worked with the Fauquier Parks and Recreation Department and community volunteers to install it.
The network of support to conserve, enhance, and preserve Remington and southern Fauquier extends well beyond PEC. The local churches, the Virginia Cooperative Extension, and John Waldeck established the Remington Community Garden. The town utilized a PATH Make It Happen Grant to build a new gazebo next to the town hall. And the Remington Community Partnership — run by the tireless Mary and Ray Root — has worked to document, preserve and promote the historic resources of the town. Countless people have led numerous other projects, but a comprehensive list could take up the entire publication!
Remington and its surrounding areas are at the intersection of two very different futures. The tremendous work we’ve all already done together paves a path that retains the region’s rural charm, agricultural heritage and economy, and promise of a vibrant place for visitation and recreation.
This progress is threatened by pressure from multiple data center proposals that could put more industrial development in the quaint town of Remington than all the commercial space in Fauquier County combined. Together these projects would open a floodgate of new transmission lines, substations, construction traffic, air pollution, noise, and massive concrete computer warehouses that will crowd out other forms of investment and business interest and induce even more industrial sprawl.
Before our county leaders make major decisions that will forever alter a critical piece of Fauquier’s rural identity and economy, it’s important to revisit and remember the investments and community accomplishments made in the face of past development pressures that would have transformed this region.
This article appeared in the 2025 fall edition of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s member newsletter, The Piedmont View. If you’d like to become a PEC member or renew your membership, please visit pecva.org/join.
Fall Foliage Festival at Sky Meadows State Park
Enjoy the beauty of fall in Virginia at the Fall Foliage Festival at Sky Meadows State Park in Paris, VA on October 18 and 19, 2025.
Loop de Ville Trail Fest + 3 Mile Walk
September 27, 2025 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Take part in the annual celebration of the beloved Rivanna Trail in Charlottesville (and National Public Lands Day). There are a wide-variety of hikes, runs, and bike rides of various distances, including the full 20-mile loop or half-loop. All activities will begin and then conclude with a finish line celebration at the Rivanna River Company. View the full schedule at loopdeville.org for more details and to register.
This year, PEC will be co-leading a up to 3 mile riverside stroll for people of all abilities along with Charlottesville’s forester, Steve Gaines.
Our goal, along with other organizers, is to put on a fun event free of barriers so community members from all backgrounds and abilities can join and have a good time. So, if that means just spending time at the Rivanna River Company in community with others (starting at 12 p.m.), that’s great!