The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has appointed Keswick resident Linda Porterfield to the Scottsville District seat that had been held by William “Pete” Craddock. Crozet resident Tom Loach was appointed to represent the White Hall District filling the vacancy left by Duane Zobrist (White Hall). Both Cal Morris (Rivanna) and Marcia Joseph (At-Large) were reappointed to the Commission..
Each Supervisor nominates someone to represent his or her district on the Commission. Porterfield’s nomination came as somewhat of a surprise. In an interview with the Daily Progress, Supervisor Lindsay Dorrier (Scottsville) said he listened to constituents in the development area who wanted more representation on the Commission, which advises the Board of Supervisors on matters related to the Comprehensive Plan and the county’s zoning ordinances. Craddock lives in the rural area.
“Input from Growth Area residents has been limited and too late in the decision-making process thus far,” wrote Ivy resident Lynda Harrill in an e-mail to Dorrier shortly after the election. “Growth Area residents need and deserve a voice in the process.” Harrill has previously lived in the Village of Rivanna’s Glenmore Neighborhood, one of Albemarle’s growth areas in the Scottsville District.
Supervisor Ann Mallek (White Hall) publicly announced in December that she would nominate Loach, who has been a critic of the implementation of the Crozet Master Plan, is concerned that County staff view the plan as calling for a potential ultimate population build-out of 24,000 people. Loach was at one point an independent candidate for the White Hall seat that Mallek won in November. As a Planning Commissioner, Loach will now be part of the body that will review the Crozet Master Plan when it comes up for a renewal in 2009.
Joseph was reappointed on a 5-1 vote, with Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna) voting against. Boyd defeated Joseph in November by only 146 votes, and re-nominated Morris.
Porterfield and her husband retired to Keswick in 2002. She served eight years on the Zoning and Planning Board for the City of Upper Arlington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. In her application to join the Commission, Porterfield said the experience prepared her to take on the many planning challenges in Albemarle.
“Issues facing the Zoning and Planning Board often were complex and required much thought and often ingenuity,” she wrote. Porterfield’s other relevant experience includes a stint on the board of directors of a homeowners’ association in Scottsdale, Arizona. In addition to her time as a teacher, she has also worked as an editor of medical publications and in a variety of fund-raising positions in Ohio and Arizona. She is currently the editor of the newsletter of the Newcomers Club of Greater Charlottesville and a docent for the Virginia Art Museum.
“The biggest challenge right now for me is to get up to speed and to find out what the big issues are, and I’m sure that will be presented to me at the first meeting,” she said in an interview with Charlottesville Tomorrow.
The first meeting of the Commission will be on Tuesday, January 15 in Lane Auditorium in the County Office Building. The first item on the agenda is to select a new Chair and Vice Chair. Among the items on the agenda is a work session on a proposal from Oxford Properties to build a new apartment complex off of Old Lynchburg Road across the street from Azalea Park.
Sean Tubbs
