Note: The post was written by Sean Tubbs for his Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter in advance of the public meeting on September 14 at 4pm. This article is reprinted here by the kind permission of the author.

You can register to attend the 9/14 zoning rewrite meeting here. [Read more…]

This is a small sampling of recent opinion about the zoning rewrite. Please read and consider all sides of this issue. All comments / critiques whether pro or con on the zoning rewrite will be accepted and posted in this space. Please send your comments to jon@jon-rice.com

• Letter to City Council from the Lewis Mountain, Belmont-Carlton, North Downtown, and Meadowbrook Hills / Rugby neighborhood associations
• Zoning FAQs from Livable Cville
• Housing Coalition Letter from Livable Cville
• Summary of Issues with the Draft Zoning Ordinance / Comprehensive Plan from Citizens for Responsible Planning
• Editorial by Mary Summers Whittle

The first module of the new draft zoning ordinance is available for community review. “Module 1 of the Draft Zoning Ordinance” includes all of the regulations pertaining to the proposed new zoning districts as well as the zoning map.Upcoming public meetings schedule, links to all the main information sources about the current round of proposed zoning changes, and information about how and where to submit questions and/or comments may be found below.

Current Zoning Draft Highlights

General Features

Affordable Housing

There is an “inclusionary zoning policy” that requires the inclusion of 10% affordable units in developments of 10 or more homes, in any zoning district. This is an important but, frankly, still modest step toward building actually affordable housing. It appears to us at this writing — and we could be wrong so we will clarify as soon as we can — that the 10% rule does not involve any numerical rounding. If true, this would mean, in practice, that real estate developers could build even fewer affordable housing units than even the nominal 10% requirement. For example, a new building with 19 housing units would only have to include one affordable housing unit. In this theoretical example, the effective rate would be 5.26% which, frankly, is too modest. We will clarify as soon as possible.

Setbacks, Height, Width and Other Building Requirements

Regulations regarding setbacks (i.e., the distance between a house or other building and the property line), building width, building height, are among the current rules being eased significantly. Requirements vary by zoning classification. These changes are for the purpose of facilitating the increase in housing density by allowing homes and businesses to take up more of their lot than is presently allowed.

Walkability

The overall goal of the zoning plan is, of course, to increase housing density in Charlottesville. Unfortunately, neither Cville Plans Together nor any other part of Charlottesville city government has made plans to build adequate sidewalks. A decent sidewalk network is essential requirement for increased housing density, especially as part of the zoning plan will reduce the number of parking spaces developers have to build. We can’t plan for fewer cars if residents don’t have safe alternatives for getting around town. Public transportation and much better bike lanes will also have to be part of the plan for greater population density, but adequate sidewalks are essential for residents of all ages and abilities to move around safely.

Zoning Issues Directly Affecting Little High

Medium Intensity Residential Area on Meade Ave

The Medium Intensity Residential Area from the Future Land Use Map is divided into two proposed zoning districts, the Residential-B (R-B: the base limit allows up to 6 units) and the Residential-C (R-C: the base limit allows up to 8 units). As the detailed view at right taken from the interactive zoning map shows, most of the neighborhood lots on Meade Avenue (from East Jefferson to Stewart Street) are in the Residential-B category, meaning up to 6 housing units can be built per lot. The five residential lots on Meade Avenue between East Jefferson going toward East Market are in the Residential-C category, meaning that up to 8 housing units can be built per lot.

This is potentially a significant increase in housing density in the neighborhood because both of the above categories allow greater amounts of housing for developments that are entirely affordable housing (affordable for a household with 60% of Area Median Income). In other words, more housing units can be built on both types of lot if they are affordable to people making 60% of AMI.

Mixed Use Nodes and Corridors

Also notable in the current zoning draft is that most of East Market, 11th, and East High streets are classified as various types of  Neighborhood Mixed Use Corridor (in various shades of brown in the above graphic) while most of the area between 9th and 10th streets is designated as various types of  Mixed Node (various shades of purple). You can click on the image above for a larger view or look at Cville Plans Together’s interactive map. Details about what is allowed by the various CX and NX zoning classifications can be found in the Draft Zoning Districts and Rules.

Zoning Information Meetings

Have questions or want to find out more? Important in-person public meetings are happening soon:

• February 22: Charlottesville High School (cafeteria), 6:00-8:30pm
• February 23: Buford Middle School (cafeteria), 6:00-8:30pm
• February 25: CitySpace, 11:00am-1:30pm

Sources from Cville Plans Together

• Draft Zoning – Module 1 (February 2023) (on YouTube)
• Module 1 of the Draft Zoning Ordinance (overview of the entire process)
• Module 1: Executive Summary (.pdf) (only 8 pages)
• Draft Zoning Districts and Rules
• Draft Zoning Map (.pdf)
• Draft Zoning Map (interactive)
• Zoning District & Map Overview by Neighborhood

Share Your Feedback

This phase of the rezoning proposals are open for public comment through March 31, 2023.

There are several ways to share your comments and questions:

• Online Feedback Form: Google Form
• Email Engage@cvilleplanstogether.com
• Comment form on the Cville Plans Together website
• Postal Mail: Neighborhood Development Services, City Hall, P.O. Box 911, Charlottesville, VA 22902

 

Update: Public comment period extended to September 6, 2022

(The following is adapted from a newsletter from Cville Plans Together that went out on 7/23/22. If you wish to receive emails directly from Cville Plans Together, you can subscribe to their newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/51691bce24a8/sign-up-for-the-email-list)

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to review the Zoning Diagnostic + Approach Report, the first report of the zoning rewrite. This document identifies issues with the current zoning ordinance and establishes a proposed approach to the zoning rewrite. It can be considered a conceptual plan for our new zoning ordinance, laying out a set of ideas that could be included in order to advance the goals and strategies of the Comprehensive Plan.

On the Cville Plans Together website, you can view the report as well as summary materials (English, Spanish) from the June 27 open house event at Ting Pavilion.

Share Your Feedback on the Zoning Report

The community review and comment period for the report extends through August 2022. September 6, 2022

There are several ways to share your comments and questions:

Online Feedback Form

• English
• Spanish

Email

Engage@cvilleplanstogether.com (or send comments via the Cville Plans Together website)

USPS

Neighborhood Development Services, City Hall, P.O. Box 911, Charlottesville, VA 22902

Comments provided at the open house on June 27 are also being reviewed by the Cville Plans Together team and will be included in the set of public comments.

While we may not be able to respond directly to all comments, we are preparing an FAQ (a list of responses to common questions), which we plan to distribute in early August.