Charlottesville is about to “get real” in its rezoning effort

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Friday, Sept. 30, 2022

It hasn’t made headlines lately, but Charlottesville’s massive re-zoning effort continues moving forward. In fact, we’re about a third of the way there.

We’re about a third of the way through Charlottesville’s massive rezoning effort

The goal of this rezoning is to drastically increase housing density across the city, with the hope of also impacting Charlottesville’s growing need for affordable housing. Right now, single family residential homes are the only thing allowed across almost all of Charlottesville. At the end of this process, that will change.

Officials recently finished a preliminary report that, among other things, outlines how they will determine where to increase allowable density. Now, they begin working on the actual draft ordinance.

“That’s where it gets detailed,” said James Freas, Charlottesville’s Director of Neighborhood Development Services. “That’s where we produce a map, that’s where we start producing text, that’s where it starts to get real.”

Officials will release the draft zoning document likely in late January or early February, said Freas. After that, there will be another weeks-long public comment and feedback period. With those comments in mind, the city will once again revise the draft ordinance and present it to the Planning Commission in the spring for approval. Then it will go to City Council for a public hearing and, after all that, a vote to adopt or not.

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Thanks for reading!

Jessie Higgins, managing editor