Charlottesville City Council has voted to issue a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) for a 7-story luxury housing development despite strong opposition from Fifeville residents.

On Monday night, City Council voted to overturn a December 2025 decision by the Board of Architectural Review to deny the COA — an official document approving exterior changes to properties within designated historic districts or landmarks — to Landmark Properties, the developer of a large student housing complex called The Mark.

In practical terms, City Council’s vote means that Landmark Properties can now move on to the next phase of development, which includes submitting a final site plan to be reviewed and approved by city staff and obtaining all necessary construction permits. 

Logo reads "Short & Important"

In an email on Wednesday, Charlottesville Development Planning Manager Matthew Alfele confirmed that since the project is by-right, site plan approval will be an administrative process and there will be no additional review by the Planning Commission or City Council.

As proposed, The Mark would stretch from 7th Street to almost 5th Street and would house more than 700 people. The developer has stated that it plans to market the apartments to University of Virginia students.

The BAR denied the certificate on the basis that the development encroaches on, and is incompatible with, two individually protected properties containing historic worker cottages from the late 1800s. Landmark Properties appealed the decision to City Council.

“At each and every meeting, BAR members expressed concern about the building’s height, scale and massing,” BAR Chair James Zehmer told City Council on Monday night before the vote. “The simple truth is that a 180-unit, 770-bed, 7-story building is not compatible with two, one-room deep, 2-story buildings.”

The developer has offered to renovate the historic homes, saying that they will “thoughtfully incorporate into the project two individually protected cottage home structures on the site.”

Steve Blaine, serving as attorney for Landmark Properties, also argued on Monday that the “evolution of the building has significantly evolved over the last year,” with height reductions and changes to the facade of the apartment complex.

A realistic architectural rendering of a 7-story apartment building that could hold about 700 residents.
A rendering of The Mark presented to the Board of Architectural Review in December 2025. That’s Seventh St. SW to the left, heading toward the train tracks, and Delevan St. in front of the building. The building would start at 7th Street and span the length of Delevan, to 5th Street SW. The “IPPs” the green arrow points to are the 2-story buildings on 7th Street SW. Both have historical significance and are considered “individually protected properties” by the city. The Mark developer has proposed rehabilitating them and turning them into additional amenities for the building, which is meant to serve UVA students. Credit: Mitchell/Matthews Architects and Planners

The proposed development has sparked concerns among residents of Fifeville, a historically Black and low-income neighborhood that was previously targeted in the city’s 1957 master plan during the era of Urban Renewal. They’ve said that building the luxury student housing complex could lead to gentrification, with local businesses catering to UVA students instead of long-term residents, and upend community-led planning initiatives already in place.

Vice Mayor Natalie Oschrin, one of three city councilors who voted to issue the COA to Landmark Properties, said that she was elected on a platform to build more housing in the city.

“We cannot discount the benefits of development,” she said. “It’s not just a building. It is a building that provides homes. It provides tax revenue. It provides traffic mitigation.”

However, community members and association representatives who spoke during the meeting disagreed.

“Student housing is not the same as affordable housing,” said Latricia Giles, executive director of the Charlottesville Public Housing Association of Residents. “It does not answer the need of low-income residents, public housing residents, working families, or longtime community members who are trying to remain in this city.”

“This building is not housing — it’s an investment class,” another speaker said.

Michael Payne, one of the two dissenting votes on the Council along with Jen Fleisher, said that it’s time for a larger conversation about whether the zoning ordinance needs to be further amended to mitigate displacement, and to listen to the voices of residents from neighborhoods that have historically suffered the most harm.

“Is there an element of procedural justice where, in the areas where Urban Renewal happened, that we as a city government have to give up some of our control of assuming we know the right answer?”

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