Development code review continues in Charlottesville while 500+ unit project seeks rezoning now
Plus: Items from Buckingham County and Nelson County
A municipal holiday takes away one slot for local government meetings to occur, and slightly disrupts the schedule. Events that were to have happened on Monday are usually shifted 24 hours. These are the kinds of challenges that make writing previews of upcoming meetings worth doing, as the goal is to spread awareness about the choices before those we elect to represent us to make decisions.
There is no meeting in Bedford County this week and they’ll be back on October 23. The goal will be to have the next edition feature meetings in the following jurisdictions but if you would like to know now, here are the places I am going to look:
Prince Edward County (agenda packet)
Charlotte County (meeting calendar)
Lynchburg city Council (regular meeting overview)
Mecklenburg County (agenda)
This time around, though:
Nelson County Supervisors will meet Tuesday and will consider a campground, a vacation home, and a budget amendment. There’s also an update on the Route 151 Corridor Study.
Charlottesville City Council has a joint public hearing with the Planning Commission on two separate rezoning requests under the existing zoning code. The Planning Commission may also consider a recommendation to the one that’s under development.
Buckingham County Supervisors will have a public hearing for a 199 foot cell tower near Scottsville, and get an introduction to a 100 megawatt solar facility that could soon be before them.
Public hearing for 199 foot tall U.S. Cellular tower in Buckingham County
The seven member Board of Supervisors in Buckingham County meet at 6 p.m. in the Peter Francisco Auditorium in the County Administration Complex. They usually meet on Monday. (meeting packet)
After the call to order by Chair Joe Chambers Jr., Supervisors will hold the invocation, the Pledge of Allegiance, and will approve the agenda, minutes, and claims. Then, announcements.
There are three presentations.
One is a resolution of memoriam to the family of Meredith Spencer Staton (page 67)
Two is a resolution of memoriam to the family of Francis Wood (page 68)
Kristen Choate of the firm Robinson, Farmer, Cox, and Associates will provide an update on the audit.
Next is public comments. To speak you have to sign up between 5:30 p.m. and 5.55 p.m. You get three minutes and you can’t talk about items coming up later in public hearings. For instance, you could not speak about the special use permit for a 199 foot cell tower that’s coming up later in the meeting.
Then there will be a Road Matters section with Scott Frederick. He’s the division resident engineer for Buckingham County.
Then, the public hearing. The application for a 199 foot tall cell tower at 2462 Axtell Road was before the Board for a preliminary discussion on September 11. The request is being shepherded by CityScape, a firm that is assisting Albemarle County with a review and rewrite of their policy on cell phone towers as I reported in April. (page 69)
“A wireless facility is a necessary infrastructure in the 21st century,” reads the narrative. “Technology is growing daily and the need for new towers are becoming more and more.”
Propagation maps in the packet indicate the tower will provide service to all of the Town of Scottsville. (page 222)
Next, Supervisors will get an introduction to a request for a 100 megawatt solar facility near the intersection of Mohele Road (Virginia 683) and Stage Coach Road (Virginia 636) in the Curdsville Magisterial District. Blue Rock Solar LLC needs a special use permit. The desired ask is to schedule a public hearing for that application. (page 269)
Under reports from departments and agencies, Chris Davis of the Arvonia Volunteer Fire Department will be on hand to discuss present his company’s invitation to the county to place “Emergency Medical Services resources” at the Arvonia facility. (page 298)
The meeting will end with a closed session to discuss the acquisition or disposition of real property for a public purpose. The agenda lists action as a possibility if Supervisors chose to proceed.
Nelson County Supervisors to consider one campground, one vacation house, and a budget amendment
The five-member Nelson County Board of Supervisors will meet at 2 p.m. for their regular session and also have a separate session scheduled for 7 p.m. Both are in the General District Courthouse in Lovingston. (meeting packet)
After the call to order, public comments, and the consent agenda, there will be a proclamation recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“The Shelter for Help in Emergency and the Nelson County Victim/Witness Program have led the way in the County of Nelson in addressing domestic violence by providing 24-hour hotline services to victims/survivors and their families, offering support and information, and empowering survivors to chart their own course for healing,” reads the proclamation. (page 46)
The Virginia Department of Transportation is the only presentation. This isn’t in the packet.
There are two items under new and unfinished business. The first is a request for a special use permit for a campground at 2601 Falling Rock Drive.
“The narrative provided by the applicants indicates that they own a camper that they are requesting to utilize as a short-term rental while their family lives in the existing dwelling,” reads the staff report. (page 47)
The second is a funding request from the Rockfish Valley Volunteer Fire and Rescue for half the cost of an ambulance replacement.
“The truck that would be replaced is a 2010 Ford F450 that currently has 88,376 miles on it, and had the motor replaced about five years ago,” reads an undated letter from EMS Captain Robert Reid. “We are one of three remaining volunteer rescue squads in the county and so far this year we have covered 170 calls with 35 of these calls being outside of our first due area and we have also over the last couple of years have done all of the coverage for Nelson County High School sporting events and handle most of the standbys for fires.”
There are a few bids in the packet.
FESCO Emergency Sales has named a price of $299,730 for the vehicle which would be a “Horton Model #603 ambulance (#21518) mounted on a Ford F-550 4x4 diesel cab and chassis.” They also quoted $289,338 for a Medix 170 Stock Unit also on the same vehicle.
Northwestern Emergency Vehicles nas named a price of $269,204 for a 2024 Chevy 3500 4x4 and $334,270 for a 2024 Ford F-550 4x4 Type 1 AEV Ambulance.
The afternoon session ends with reports, appointments, directives and correspondence. No closed session is indicated.
Nelson County Administrator Candace McGarry reports that additional feedback on the Comprehensive Plan will be taken through October 26. A final draft will be available for review by December 7 with the Planning Commission’s public hearing in late January and the Board’s public hearing in February.
We also learn from McGarry’s report that the Nelson County Service Authority will soon hire a firm to conduct engineering tasks as needed beginning with a preliminary engineering report for water and wastewater systems that serve Lovingston. This will include evaluation of the Dillard Creek area for a potential reservoir.
The Virginia Department of Transportation continues to work on the Route 151 Corridor Study with a second in-person meeting scheduled for November. Cost estimates for potential projects will follow with an appearance before the Board of Supervisors.
“This schedule flows well with that of the Comprehensive Plan, allowing for its consideration and inclusion in the final draft to be presented for public hearings in early to mid-winter 2023,” McGarry wrote in her report.
The evening session features three public hearings.
One is a special use permit for a vacation home at 2617 Rockfish Valley Highway on property zoned residential.
“The narrative provided by the applicants indicates that this is one owner’s primary residence, and the other owner’s part time residence until she retires,” reads the staff report (page 72). “They are requesting to utilize the dwelling as a vacation house, or short-term rental, 2-3 weekends per month.”
The Planning Commission failed to pass a recommendation to approve at their meeting on August 23.
The second is a correction to the adopted FY24 budget to appropriate $2.111,079 to the Department of Social Services. This is to fix a clerical error.
The third is for an amendment to the adopted FY24 budget to reflect the receipt of $2,451,703 from Virginia’s School Construction Assistance grant program.
The two resolutions will be reconciled and brought back to Supervisors at their November 16 meeting for adoption. That meeting will be on a Thursday.
The consent agenda has another budget amendment that is below the threshold for a public hearing but nonetheless has some interesting items worth mentioning.
The Clerk of Circuit Court has requested $1,600 for a video docketing system that will display what cases will be heard that day on monitors outside of each courtroom.
Nelson County has increased funding for meals at the Gladstone Senior Center from $2,250 a quarter to $5,000 a quarter.
A total of $21,389 has been requested to serve as a match for Nelson County’s participation in the greater Safe Streets and Roads for All grant that the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is overseeing. The TJPDC was awarded $857,600 for the project in February. The firms Kimley Horn and Avid Core have been hired by the TJPDC to conduct the work.
Charlottesville PC to consider rezoning for massive project on Stadium Row, may make recommendation on development code
The seven-member Charlottesville Planning Commission will meet in City Council Chambers at 5:30 p.m. but there is often substantive discussion at the pre-meeting which begins at 5 p.m. in the conference room of Neighborhood Development Services. This part is not televised. (meeting files)
The agenda packet is 467 pages long and the Civic Plus interface for meetings gets some getting used to. Most jurisdictions that use Civic Plus chop up the meeting packets for meetings of elected officials. I would like to see this extended to Planning Commission meetings.
The regular meeting will begin with Commissioners’ Reports, a report from the University, a report from the Chair, and a report from the Department of Neighborhood Development Services. Then public comment followed by the consent agenda which this time consists of approval of two sets of minutes. These are at the very end of the packet, but I extracted the minutes from the joint planning commission and Council meeting from August 29, 2023 where they discussed how the Development Code would be adopted. (view those minutes on cvillepedia)
In the first joint public hearing with the City Council, Neighborhood Investments CA LLC seeks a rezoning of a 0.62 acre parcel. The land is currently split between R-2U (Two-Family Residential University) and R-3 (Multifamily Residential).
“The applicant is proposing a multifamily building with up to five units through new construction,” reads the agenda.
These units would be in addition to what’s already existing at the site. The property would be Residential Mixed Use 3 (RX-3) under the new zoning code.
“The owner realizes that the enactment of a new zoning ordinance may allow the same potential for site improvements pursued in this request,” reads the narrative crafted by Mitchell Matthews Architects. “However, because of uncertainties about when the new ordinance will take effect, the owner requests the rezoning described here to allow improvement plans to proceed sooner rather than later.”
The second first joint public hearing is a Comprehensive Plan review for a 3.3 acre Planned Unit Development request that’s the subject of joint public hearings #3 and #4. For all three, VERVE Charlottesville seeks a rezoning of five properties on Stadium Road. The first action sought is to amend a previous vacation of a paper street known as Woodrow Street. Are relocations of utility easements consistent with the Comprehensive Plan?
But what do they hope to build? One of the biggest residential projects in city history nestled right within the heart of the University of Virginia’s Central Grounds.
“The applicant is proposing to redevelop the Subject Property and replace the existing (62) residential units (spread between nine different buildings) with one building containing between (524) to (550) residential units,” reads the agenda. “The proposed building will have a height range of (75) feet to (135) feet and stories that range from (5) to (12).”
The Planning Commission held a preliminary discussion in June which I had hoped to cover.
After this, the Commission may take up the Development Code and may make a recommendation. Here’s my story from yesterday for more information.
Reading material for the jurisdictions listed above:
Buckingham County supervisors expand some tax benefits, Rachel Austin, September 15, 2023
How accessible is C’ville?, Matt Dhillon, C-Ville Weekly, October 4, 2023
Racists remarks flood Charlottesville City Council meeting, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), October 4, 2023
Cultivate Charlottesville and community partners seek to build public gardens in Booker T. Washington Park, Ford McCracken and Eleanor Jenkins, Cavalier Daily, October 4, 2023
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative rate increase took effect Oct. 1, Justin Faulconer, Nelson County Times, October 6, 2023
'I don't want to be right': Charlottesville's upzoning opponents could be losing this fight, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), October 7, 2023