Charlottesville has a new zoning ordinance.
City Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance — which was seven years in the making — late Monday night, near the end of a five and a half hour meeting.
Broadly, the plan will allow for more residential density throughout the city, something known as “upzoning.” Officials hope that the new ordinance will open up more affordable housing opportunities.
The meeting wasn’t as well attended as the Dec. 5 public hearing where around 100 people spoke, but citizens still showed up to speak in favor, and against, the ordinance.
At one point, Mayor Lloyd Snook held a “straw vote,” which is an unofficial, ad hoc vote, of those folks in the audience who supported, or objected to, the ordinance. More people stood up to say they supported it, than objected to it. That mirrored the public hearing, where about three times as many people spoke in favor of the ordinance than opposed it.
For about two hours, Council discussed various amendments to the proposed ordinance with city staff, including Director of Neighborhood Development Services James Freas and City Attorney Jacob Stroman. Councilors deliberated over language, asked Freas and Stroman questions, and looked at individual maps of streets and lots that had been zoned one way but that they felt warranted a second look and maybe a different zoning.
Each councilor expressed reservations about some part of the more than 400-page ordinance. For example, Snook doesn’t think that the RN-A zoning for areas facing gentrification pressures, “is going to do what people think it’s going to do.” Councilor Michael Payne wanted different language in the Affordable Dwelling Unit section. That section requires all developments of 10 units or more to make a certain percentage of units affordable to households earning no more than 60% of Area Median Income, for 99 years. Payne wanted them to be affordable to families at a lower AMI, and in perpetuity.
But none of the councilors’ reservations were enough to keep them from voting for the plan, they said.
Each councilor made a statement before taking the vote, acknowledging the many hours of work by city staff, Planning Commissioners, members of advisory committees, and the community.
More about Charlottesville’s new zoning ordinance
“This is a big deal,” said Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade. “I’ve been asked several questions about this, but I’ve also asked myself several questions. One is, do I have enough information to make the decision? Have we done, as a council, our due diligence to understand the information and the community? Have we asked all the questions? Have we heard from everyone? I believe we have, on all those accounts.”
Snook said that the city has a vision for itself, one that will take a while, and a better transit system, to realize. “But we have to get started, and this is a good start.”
“As positive and big as the change I think is, we have to have the humility to recognize that we’re not going to know every impact,” said Payne. “There’s going to be a lot of things that we don’t foresee about multiple elements of it, and I think it’s important to just have the humility to acknowledge that and be ready to respond to that in the coming years.”
By the time the Council got to the end of its meeting agenda, it was nearly midnight, and fewer than two dozen people remained in the chambers. Before adjourning, Snook opened the floor to any community members who wanted to speak.
Kevin Lynch, who served two terms on City Council in the 2000s, admonished the Council for its vote. “I honestly can’t believe what I just witnessed here. You just voted for probably just the most radical upzoning plan in the country.”
At that, some of the people in the chambers snapped their fingers in approval, not of Lynch’s condemnation but of the plan itself.
“Which, some people like,” Lynch said. “And after you and your staff just spent what, two hours, three hours, admitting, demonstrating in public, that you don’t fully understand what you voted on. Or even were able to get simple majority support for individual pieces, significant pieces, of the plan you voted on.”
Lynch was referencing a moment in the meeting when Snook realized he had misunderstood a provision of the code that defined the footprint and the square footage of structures allowed on each lot. He had been operating under the impression that the square footage cap Council had been discussing was cumulative (all structures on a lot combined), not per structure as outlined in the ordinance.
A handful of people spoke after Lynch, all of them thanking the Council for its decision. “I can complain about choices that you made, but I won’t, because I think you got a lot more right than you got wrong,” said Josh Carp. He thinks that a lot of the concerns expressed on the dais, and by some community members, won’t come to pass. “I think you did one of the best things that’s in your power to do,” pointing not just to the zoning ordinance, but to Council’s vote to approve two high density apartment buildings for UVA students, one in the Stadium Road area and another on Ivy Road.
Genevieve Keller, an architectural historian and preservation planner who served on the Planning Commission, also praised the Council’s vote. “If we’d had this Council and this leadership group six, or eight years ago, things may have been very different” for housing in Charlottesville today.
Some things in the plan will work well, and some things will not and will need to be tweaked, said Keller. “I think the hard work begins tonight.”
View the draft ordinance that Council adopted here. A final version, including changes discussed at the Dec. 18 meeting, will be posted to the city’s website soon.
