Charlottesville’s zoning lawsuit could be coming to an end

During the Charlottesville City Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 20, City Attorney John Maddux said that the zoning lawsuit that had caused mass confusion among city staff and developers alike could be resolved sooner than expected.

To recap: In January 2024, a group of nine city residents sued the city over its new zoning ordinance, which City Council passed unanimously in December 2023 and which took effect in February 2024.

Broadly, the ordinance made it possible for more housing of various types to be built throughout the city, something known as “upzoning.”

The suit alleged that the city did not follow Virginia law in its comprehensive plan process. Specifically, it claimed that the city sent only the transportation chapter, and not the entire plan, to the Virginia Department of Transportation. For that reason, the suit argued, the comprehensive plan adopted by City Council in November 2021 — and the zoning ordinance later based on it — was void.

Ultimately, a court decided that those allegations were not timely, and tossed them out. But the suit continued under other allegations that the city did not conduct sufficient studies about how more density would affect the city’s infrastructure.

After the city’s outside counsel missed a filing deadline, Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell issued a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs on June 30, 2025. Read more about how the decision caused chaos for city staff and developers alike.

From July: Some affordable housing projects in limbo after judge voids Charlottesville’s new zoning code

Later in the summer, the city explored its options, which included settling the case, or moving to readopt the ordinance if need be. 

In August, the city asked Worrell to reconsider his decision. He did, and allowed the case to proceed to trial. 

An eight-day jury trial was set for September 2026.

But, City Attorney Maddux told City Council last night that the plaintiffs came to the city asking to settle.

Their offer was the same one Maddux has presented to them over the summer, he said, and which the plaintiffs had rejected: If the plaintiffs agreed to drop the suit, the city would conduct the studies that the plaintiffs alleged it did not.

Monday night, Maddux asked City Council to agree to the settlement terms, and the council did, unanimously.

This doesn’t mean the city is admitting wrongdoing, Maddux wrote in a policy briefing summary about the settlement agreement. “The City remains confident that it would ultimately prevail in this matter,” he wrote.

However, settling the case would be much cheaper than pursuing litigation, Maddux wrote in the policy briefing and reiterated in his presentation to the council last night.

The two studies, one on transportation and another on modelling for future infrastructure and public service needs associated with future growth and development in the city, are expected to cost no more than $650,000, Deputy City Manager James Freas told the council.

The exact amount won’t be known until the city has a scoping meeting with VDOT, Maddux said, but he thought it could be “far south of $650,000 to conduct that study.”

If the case were to go to trial, legal costs would build, Maddux said — and fast. 

The City Attorney’s office is still working with Gentry Locke on the case, and the city would have been required to pay between $190 and $250 per hour, per attorney, City Spokesperson Afton Schneider told Charlottesville Tomorrow in an email on Monday. Attorneys would have to retain expert witnesses, gather depositions (out-of-court testimonies given, under oath, to an attorney), prepare extensive legal evidence and filings, and more. And then there would be paying attorneys throughout the eight-day trial and any appeals. 

“The cost to litigate this case is going to far exceed $650,000, if we were to go through trial, though appeals,” Maddux told the council.

The money for the studies would come out of the city’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Contingency Fund. If the studies cost less than what’s estimated, the remaining money will be returned to the CIP Contingency Fund to be used for other city projects.

Council voted unanimously to have Maddux and City Manager Sam Sanders proceed with the settlement. It will hold a second public reading and a vote on the $650,000 appropriation for the studies, during its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 3.

Once the city and the plaintiffs sign the settlement agreement, they’ll have to move fast. 

Within 30 days of signing, the city will have to schedule its scoping meeting with VDOT, to look at the scope and cost of the aforementioned studies. The city will then have 120 days from the date of the scoping meeting to conduct the studies, and then an additional 30 days to provide the information to VDOT. 

After that, VDOT will review the analysis and provide comments, VDOT Spokesperson Alexis Mehretab told Charlottesville Tomorrow in an email on Monday. 

“I think this is a fantastic outcome for us in this case,” Maddux told the council. “It’s going to save us a lot of money, that’s what I think it’s going to do, and a lot of time. It’s going to bring a lot of stability, and reassurance to our development community, and help us really move forward with some clarity and purpose around our zoning.”

City officials seemed optimistic, and relieved to move beyond the lawsuit.

But, with residents coming to City Council asking them to revise the zoning ordinance to better protect historically Black and brown communities from further displacement and gentrification, the conversation about zoning in Charlottesville is far from over.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted.

The possible settlement wasn’t the only big piece of news to come out of Monday’s City Council meeting. Council voted unanimously to spend up to $6.3 million of CIP Contingency Funds to purchase a property at 2000 Holiday Drive for the purpose of opening a low-barrier homeless shelter, something local homeless service providers say the city has needed for years. We’ll keep you up to date on how that develops, too. 

Until next time, take care of yourselves and one another out there,
Erin O’Hare, Neighborhoods Reporter