Central Virginia development moves on

Posted on November 15, 2006 by Jim Duncan

Biscuit Run, the proposed development to the south of the City has been revised downwards from a proposed 5,000 homes to 3,500 homes. The traffic study work session next month should be interesting.

As always, Cvilletomorrow has much more information as well as a podcast of the planning commission’s meeting.

Wal-mart is finally coming to Greene County! If only NBC29 will stop with the bringing “green” to Greene lines. Hardy-har-har. So clever. There has been much discussion locally about the merits of Wal-mart, but I do know that my clients in Greene will welcome this addition to their community. Soon they won’t have to go to Culpeper or CharlAlbemarle,

Yesterday at an open house for a new development, I was interested to see that their solution, as approved by the County, to the affordable housing situation is to provide affordable “accessory apartments. (pdf)” At least it’s something. More at the County’s website.

Fluvanna’s clustering is moving forward and Daniel has his thoughts on the newest Fluvanna development.

Piedmont Environmental Council’s new report says that we have enough housing in the pipeline. (pdf)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – studies that consider only Charlottesvile/Albemarle or Fluvanna or Greene are too myopic for today’s settlement and travel patterns. We need to look at development and its benefits and impacts from at least a regional point of view.

Housing inventory is up, but development plugs on, and for many, that’s a good thing. The various development industries add so much to our local economy that many don’t realize. Managed appropriately, growth can be good. Might as well attempt manage it, because it seems it’s going to happen anyway.

Tracking all of these things is almost a full-time job!

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About Jim Duncan

A Charlottesville Realtor who tries to stay on the bleeding/cutting/functional edge of technology and real estate trends. I have been selling real estate for the past 10 years, lived in C'Ville for twenty+ and am married to one of few Charlottesville natives left.
This entry was posted in Affordability, Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Growth. Bookmark the permalink.
  • UVA08

    Hey Jim,
    Is there any new news on Albemarle Place? It seems like they broke ground a few months ago but things have been quite there for a while.

  • http://realestatezebra.com Daniel Rothamel

    Jim,

    I agree with your point that development studies that study only one locality are too myopic to be useful, but it would seem that in the land of the blind, the Cyclops is king.

    The hard part, even if comprehensive studies and suggestions existed, would be getting the counties to work together on things. Fluvanna and Louisa are working together, sort of, on the new pipeline, but the psyche of many residents, and most government officials, seems to be “we don’t want to be like THEM, or do what THEY do.”

    I don’t know how to change this, but it has been a driving force behind many of the decisions in Fluvanna.

  • MB

    The Real Estate Zebra article is extremely misleading as Sycamore Square is not reflective of Fluvanna’s “cluster subdivision” ordinance. Heck, it was platted in 2002, several years before clusters were even mandated. While there is open space, it is open space required by the R-3 ordinance, not the cluster ordinance. To be clear, Sycamore Square IS NOT a cluster subdivision by Fluvanna County standards. The first cluster approved was originally called Trillium, now called Sycamore Landing or something. It was developed by Baird Snyder, with Hauser Homes purchasing the lots. I don’t know how the homes are selling though.

  • C

    It’s easy to say that a comprehensive look at development in this region would be better- no doubt it would- but the PEC report finds that an entire county planning staff can barely keep track of proposals/approvals/construction in one county at the current flow of development (over 17,800 housing units) through Albemarle’s pipeline, so your assessment seems to ignore the report. As the report details, the 17,800 houses currently proposed or approved would satisfy demand (based on current population projections) for the next 40 years. Why approve so much now? Is this good planning? Given the quantitiy of development occuring in Fluvanna , Greene and Louisa, it seems that taking those counties into account might paint an even more alarming picture of how development and planning are occuring in our region.

  • http://realestatezebra.com Daniel Rothamel

    MB-

    Thanks for pointing that out. That was obviously something about which I was misinformed. As far as Sycamore Landing goes, I had some personal experience with that one, and as of now, none of the homes have been built, although the initial roads have been cut in and paved. I imagine that Hauser is going to have to wait a while to start building homes, as their plate seems pretty full, even in Fluvanna.

  • http://realestatezebra.com Daniel Rothamel

    MB–

    I posted a correction to my previous post, thanks for the info.

  • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

    UVA08 –

    Still working on the Albemarle Place update. There seems to be a little bit of progress every day I drive by. I suspect that in 3 or six months, we’ll look at it and say, “When did that building go up?”

    MB and Daniel -

    thank you for the update and clarifications.

    C –

    I don’t know how to accomplish this, but I know that it needs to be done. Maybe the best route is to take the various analyses by the various special interest groups, try to remove the respective biases and try to let the data speak for itself. As I said, I don’t know how, but I do agree that the County staffs are overextended.