Coming this fall, expected around September or October, Albemarle County Supervisors and staff will receive recommendations on how to better improve the development review process. The current process which requires a host of formal procedures and heavy involvement from the Planning Commission will be reviewed and assessed by a new 6-month special task force that was approved by the County Supervisors at the March 1, 2006 meeting.
Listen to the podcast
:
Download TaskForce.MP3
The new committee,
initiated by Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna)
, will be composed of 2 Supervisors, 2 planning commissioners (active or retired), 3 community members, 2 development representatives, the county executive (or his designee), and 1 appropriate member from the UVA community. The county will be advertising during March for applications for the 3 community members and 2 development representatives with the hope of having a list of all applicants at their April 5, 2006 meeting.
Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) voted in favor of establishing the task force, however, she warned that she considered it a “a waste of both staff and citizens’ times.” Indeed, county staff will be required to
shift gears
with the current work plan in order to support this new committee. The programs that will be put on hold while the development review task force is in operation include: updating the economic development policy in the comprehensive plan, and evaluating issues of country stores and critical slopes in the implementation of the comprehensive plan.
At the heart of this new task force lies some of the most important issues facing the Charlottesville/Albemarle community. Namely, how do we
strike a balance between public input and a review of development projects that is efficient, effective, and in line with the community’s expectations about quality growth.
The new committee is expected to recommend better strategies on this fractious issue.
Andrew Owen
[Note: Andrew Owen is an intern at Charlottesville Tomorrow and he has produced this informative summary and podcast.
Brian Wheeler
]
