The slow transition to fall moves a step forward this weekend with the return of students to the University of Virginia. That’s a good time as any to remind you that the Grounds are technically in a portion of Albemarle County because Charlottesville could not annex that land during the decades that option was on the table.
It is also important to note that UVA is not under the restrictions of zoning in either city or county. They also run their own transit system with very little integration with the system owned by Charlottesville. UVA also cannot control land use in Charlottesville and their objections over two large student housing buildings on the periphery did not influence City Council’s decisions.
For the past six years, this newsletter seeks to keep track of all of these entities and how they fit together. Each Sunday comes this ridiculously long edition where I go through all of the agendas of upcoming meetings. I try to provide as much context as I can with links to previous coverage as well as links to the primary sources.
This is my full-time gig and the costs are covered by paid subscribers and sponsors. Just less than 20 percent of the audience are contributing and the odds of long-term stability will increase if I can get that number much higher.
One of those sponsors is the Piedmont Environmental Council who have been supporting this look ahead even before this newsletter launched.
Highlights this week:
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will meet Monday and there will be a closed session about the sale or purchase of CRHA property.
The Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority will meet Monday to go over an implementation study for increased service.
The Albemarle Planning Commission will hold two public hearings Tuesday for special use permits in the rural area.
The Charlottesville Planning Commission will hold a work session Tuesday on legislative requests they’d like Council to make.
The Greene Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will hold a work session on further efforts to regulate events at agricultural operations.
There are no high-level meetings in Fluvanna County or Louisa County this week.
Ever since I have been a reporter covering land use and transportation in this community, increased transit service has been described as a way that will help people get around a built environment that will get more dense over time.
In 2008, I covered a push to create a regional transit authority, an effort that stalled in 2009 after legislation failed that would have allowed Albemarle and Charlottesville to hold a referendum on a sales tax increase to pay for additional.
In 2016, work resumed and the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority was created in late 2025. One of the first tasks is to identify potential routes that would be good candidates for expanded funding.
The firm RK&K was hired to conduct that work and the CARTA Board got a first look in May as I reported at the time. They had another update in late July which I may not have the opportunity to write about that meeting in advance of tomorrow’s special CARTA meeting at which the final study will be revealed. That takes place at 5 p.m. in a virtual meeting.
Some rhetorical questions as I prepare to dig into that July meeting?
How much of the public knows of these studies? How many elected officials have reviewed previous studies like the Regional Transit Vision or the Regional Transit Governance study? How many of them are able to track the jargon? How does the average person know that this work is moving toward something as opposed to helping planners stay employed?
Do other members of the press care, or is transit the sort of thing that only gets written about when something goes wrong?
Will a single person be able to navigate to the draft study from the CARTA website? I cannot provide direct links given the web software that the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission used.
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When you go to the website of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, a window pop-up opens with a picture of a portion of the Sixth Street site being demolished.
“Excuse our construction,” reads the note. “We’re redeveloping our housing and our Website! Please be patient while we provide the best housing and website experience for our residents!”
My hope is that when the website update is completed, any member of the public will be able to access the meeting materials. CRHA is a government agency that receives regular funding from the City of Charlottesville, but copies of the agenda and meeting materials are not posted online before meetings.
In the meantime, I post the agendas to cvillepedia so they can be reviewed by the public. The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on August 24 in City Council Chambers. (view the agenda)
One of the items on the agenda is a discussion of the deployment of cameras. This does not appear to be in the materials sent to members of the board.
There will be a closed meeting to discuss both personnel matters as well as property disposition and acquisition. In recent years, CRHA has purchased several individual properties, dozens of units in what is known as the Dogwood portfolio, and a three-story building on the Downtown Mall.
Additional meeting materials:
August Redevelopment Board Report
For some reason, this agenda is listed as the Annual Meeting, but they’ll be back at a work session on September 10 and a regular session on September 28.
There is also an additional meeting scheduled for September 1 to take public comment on the a change to the CRHA’s annual plan.
“The Charlottesville Redevelopment & Housing Authority (CRHA) Public Hearing regarding the Amended FY 2026- 2027 Annual Plan has been postponed to allow for a longer comment period,” reads an email sent to the Board of Commissioners on August 18. “The public hearing will be held as a hybrid event via an electronic meeting platform, Zoom and in person at the Westhaven Center at 801 Hardy Drive, Charlottesville, VA, on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 5pm.”
I am unclear on whether this document is posted online. Is it one of the ones on the “Key Documents” site? The links to the top documents are broken.
A June 30, 2026 email from Deputy Director Kathleen Glenn-Matthews explains what changes have been made to the document: The following are quotes from that email:
CRHA intends to reposition its public housing stock through demolition/disposition under Section 18 of the Housing Act of 1937. The demolition/disposition action will involve Westhaven in AMP VA016000001. In accordance with HUD’s Section 18 approval process, CRHA will be submitting a Section 18 application in approximately Q4 2026 for the above-noted property.
CRHA has engaged a development partner and is pursuing a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) award for Phase I of the Westhaven redevelopment, which will deliver two five-story buildings with approximately 164 units. The new units will be affordable for families at or below 80% of area median income, with approximately 164 subsidized with project-based vouchers. Future phases are planned to deliver approximately 102 townhouse units as well as resident amenities and multi-use space.
CRHA will be submitting /has submitted a Section 18 Demolition and/or Disposition application for Westhaven in approximately Q4 2026. CRHA anticipates receiving approximately 126 tenant protection vouchers (TPVs) after SAC approval of this Section 18 action. The housing authority intends to project-base approximately 82 of these TPVs at the Westhaven redevelopment. Project basing these units is consistent with the goals of CRHA’s Annual Plan as it allows CRHA to continue serving residents at Westhaven, thereby providing long-term rental assistance at these properties and assisting the housing authority in maintaining these communities as affordable housing serving families earning at or below 80% AMI. We anticipate project basing all 126 TPV’s back into the development. We will fill the remaining units in Phase 1 with PBV’s from our regular program.
In other words, much of Westhaven will no longer be technically public housing while still subsidized through a variety of sources including city taxpayer funds.
Does the public understand this? Do residents understand this? Will there be a gap between the amount the housing vouchers cover and the amount tenants can pay? Will Charlottesville taxpayers pick up the rest as is happening currently with a pilot program at Kindlewood?
“City Staff recommends City Council adopt the attached Resolution which funds a two (2)-year Pilot Program that includes $170,000 for a financial literacy counselor and up to $220,000 to cover fifty percent of arrears for participating households,” reads the staff report for a February 2 resolution to $390,000 from the city’s Capital Improvement Program contingency fund on this purpose.
In other meetings:
The Albemarle County Architectural Review Board will meet at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. On the agenda is a review of a self-storage facility on Airport Road. (meeting info)
The Albemarle County Historic Preservation Committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. in Room C of the county’s office building at 1600 Fifth Street. On the agenda is a discussion of “heritage education ideas” and a review of the latest demolition report. One site to be demolished are structures at 600 and 602 Rio Road West. In May of this year, the Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning to allow up to 153 residential units on the site. (meeting info)
The Pantops Community Advisory Committee will meet at 6:15 p.m. in the Kessler Conference Room at the Martha Jefferson Hospital Outpatient Center at 595 Martha Jefferson Drive. On the agenda is an update from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority as well as a presentation from the Albemarle County Parks Foundation. (meeting info)
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The five members of the Greene County Board of Supervisors will meet earlier than usual for a 4:30 p.m. work session followed by a closed session at 5:30 p.m. followed by the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. (agenda)
The work session will be another opportunity for Supervisors to review suggested amendments to county code to place additional restrictions on events at agricultural events. The Board last considered these at a public hearing on February 24 and deferred action until some of the feedback could be incorporated.
“This working draft is structured to reduce conflict with Virginia law by preserving protected agricultural, agritourism, farm-winery, limited-brewery, and limited-distillery activities unless a substantial impact on public health, safety, or general welfare is established,” reads a section of the presentation.
Draft changes to code (not a redline version)
This is the first meeting at which the new rules for public comment have been initiated.
“The Board will set aside time for Matters From the Public on each meeting agenda to receive comments on any item not scheduled for a Public Hearing from Greene County residents,” reads the agenda. “The Board will not engage with the citizens in discussions or debate about any comment received.”
There are four presentations.
The first is an update on the creation of a county-wide resilience plan for flooding. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation awarded Greene County a $93,750 grant which requires $31,250 in matching funds from the local government. The Timmons Group has been hired to do the work according to the staff report. (presentation)
The second is an update from the Virginia Department of Transportation. (presentation)
The third is about a need for more local funding to cover implementation of the Childrens’ Service Act. (staff report)
The fourth is a presentation on unfunded mandates from the Commonwealth of Virginia including a need to increase salaries for family service specialists to $55,000 and a need to cover the costs to implement the new paid Family Medical Leave program mandated by the General Assembly. (staff report)
There is one action item and that is to authorize the county administrator to apply for grant funds for a Utility Terrain Vehicle for Greene County emergency services. (staff report)
Public hearings for land use applications are now rare in the City of Charlottesville after the City Council approved a Development Code that vastly reduced the number of times a year they have to consider a rezoning or a special use permit.
That’s not the case in Albemarle County where the Board of Supervisors must approve such applications on a case-by-case basis. They do so after the Planning Commission has made a recommendation.
On August 25, the seven-member body will take up two special use permit requests. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in Lane Auditorium of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road.
The first is for a special use permit for a boarding camp on a 29.71 acre property on Secretary Sands Road in the Scottsville district.
“The Alberene Yoga Retreat proposes a camp (boarding camp) to be established in two phases,” reads the staff report. “The first phase would include primitive campsites, a 4,000 square foot indoor yoga studio, a picnic area, and hiking trails. The second phase that would add permanent cabins to 9 campsites.”
The applicants describe the site as compatible with the county’s Comprehensive Plan.
“The given location of this proposed use is ideal for a wellness retreat, allowing guests to experience rest and relaxation through nature-based activities such as hiking, sightseeing, stargazing, outdoor yoga, and camping,” reads the narrative.
Albemarle’s process requires a community meeting to be held. That happened on June 16, 2026 at Walton Middle School but no one attended. Notice of the meeting is mailed to adjacent landowners.
One of them could not attend the meeting and expressed concern about how long it takes for emergency calls to get to the rural site.
“The last person that got lost in the woods last year, with an address less than a mile away on Secretary Sands Road, was not found in time before he died, despite heavy search efforts over several days,” wrote Ethan Darrow.
Darrow also stated that many people in the area shoot guns and he doesn’t want the property owners to have issues with his shooting range. He also called for a six-foot-tall privacy fence to be built along the perimeter of the property.
“While I am not affected by my neighbors behavior, the neighbor that does have direct adjacent property to [the] proposal is a nudist,” Darrow wrote. “I always call before going over to talk with him. Another important reason to have a 6 foot privacy fence.”
Staff recommends approval.
The second public hearing is for a special use permit to hold events up to 24 events at an agricultural operation off of Garth Road in the Samuel Miller district.
“The Barns proposes to establish an agricultural operation to include regenerative meadow plantings, apiculture, free-range chickens, and orchards,” reads the staff report. “The special events may include fundraisers, gatherings such as farm-to-table dinners, film screenings, books readings, etc., and private parties.”
The community meeting was held on June 10, 2026 and about a dozen people attended. All but two were in support. Staff recommends approval.
In other meetings:
The Albemarle County Electoral Board meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room B of the county’s office building at 1600 5th Street Extended. The only item of business is a personnel matter that will be discussed in a closed session. (meeting info)
The Charlottesville Planning Commission will have a work session to discuss legislative requests for the next General Assembly. One of them is for “Relief on noticing requirements for areas without a daily paper.” They meet at 5 p.m. in CitySpace. (meeting info)
In the 20 years or so I’ve been a reporter, one of the stories over that time has been the professionalization of public safety with the replacement of volunteers with paid positions in order to reduce call response times.
Over that time I’ve also seen a reduction in coverage of budget season in Albemarle County. In 2025, Albemarle Supervisors approved a recommended four-cent increase in the real property tax rate with 80 percent of that funding to pick up the cost of hiring dozens of new firefighters and medics.
Here are a few stories if you’re new to this topic:
Albemarle Fire Rescue staff has begun staffing North Garden, November 25, 2022
Chief Eggleston briefs Albemarle Board of Supervisors on strategic outlook for fire and rescue needs, January 7, 2024
Albemarle’s police chief and fire chief explain why they need additional funds, March 21, 2025
One story I did not get to last year was on a study from the consultant about future staffing needs. You can take a look at the drafts here.
With all of that in mind, governance of the system comes from the Albemarle County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Board which meets at 6 p.m. (or 1800 hours) in Room 235 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)
In a hypothetical world where I had more funding to hire a team of reporters, one would be assigned to the public safety beat. There’s a lot to discuss and the agenda for the August 26 meeting has a lot to go through.
Under old business they’ll discuss Policy 803 - Patient Medical Record Security and Privacy.
Under new business they’ll discuss vehicle tax credits for volunteers, an updated website to recruit volunteers, a policy on flu vaccines, radio programming, and organizational structure. (agenda)
In other meetings:
The Charlottesville Retirement Commission will meet at 8:30 a.m. in CitySpace. (meeting info)
The Albemarle Broadband Authority will meet at 5 p.m. in Room 241 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)
A community’s Comprehensive Plan is one of the major drivers of policy. For decades, Albemarle’s plan has called for growth and development to be focused on designated areas near infrastructure like public water and sewer.
Each of these areas also has a master plan. The Board of Supervisors adopted the Places29 plan in February 2011 after nearly six years of review. Initially there was one advisory body to oversee an entire area along U.S. 29 ranging from Hydraulic Road to the National Ground Intelligence Center. That was split into three at the end of 2014 at the request of former Supervisor Brad Sheffield (Rio District) as I write about at the time.
Last year, the Board of Supervisors adopted an update of the Comprehensive Plan that did not expand the development area but for the first time broached the possibility of doing so in the future. Until then, what the county calls AC44 recommends further ways to increase density through activity center plans.
One of the first three of these plans is slated to be around the intersection of U.S. and Rio Road which is within the jurisdiction of the Places29-Rio Community Advisory Committee which meets at 6 p.m. in Room 235 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. These meetings are not recorded and there are no advance materials. (meeting info) (agenda)
The group will get an update on implementation of AC44 from staff in the Community Development Department. There are no materials in advance. There has been no update on the website Engage Albemarle which was used to collect feedback during the four-year development of AC44. For instance, 16 people responded to the most recent survey.
Albemarle County has a population above 117,000. Except for this newsletter, there is almost no coverage of this planning process. And this newsletter struggles to get to things on a timely basis. One story I hope to get to before Thursday is a summary of the Board of Supervisors’ discussion of activity plans from August 5.
What questions do you have?
In one other meeting:
The Charlottesville Human Rights Commission is holding a public hearing at their 6 p.m. meeting in CitySpace but there’s no information about what this would be about as there is no material. (meeting info)
No epilogue today. It’s 5:12 p.m. at publication time which is too late but see eldercare note a few days ago.
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