City Walk, a long-dormant residential development project planned for construction near Charlottesville’s coal tower, is once again moving forward.
The city has issued a building permit for Atlanta-based developer Metzger and Co. Construction will occur north of the CSX railroad tracks, between 10th Street Northeast and Carlton Road.
City neighborhood planner Brian Haluska confirmed that the project will be a rental apartment community that will consist of four multi-family buildings that will hold 301 units and have one parking deck.
Additionally, developers have been issued a permit to begin installing water and sewer lines, and have submitted applications to demolish a residential structure at 119 Carlton Road and a commercial structure at 155 Carlton Road, which was the former home of Rudy’s Cleaners.
The developer has agreed to connect Water Street to Carlton Road, and to fund the construction of a multi-use path on the south side of the Water Street extension.
“The road will take a lot of traffic off Carlton Road,” Haluska said, “and the path is a big positive in the pedestrian infrastructure in the city. A lot of pedestrians will now have a key path to downtown that will be safe and inviting.”
Previous designs called for at least one building to be nine stories tall, but that was scaled back. Haluska confirmed that each building will be three stories over a basement.
This site is also in view of Charlottesville’s coal tower, which will remain intact.
“The coal tower was designated as an individually protected historic structure several years ago by the City Council, and cannot be demolished without the permission of the Board of Architectural Review,” Haluska said.
Metzger and Co. declined to comment for this story.
