Comments on: Central Virginia development moves on

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 16:13:50 +0000

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.

By: Daniel Rothamel

Daniel Rothamel — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:40:32 +0000

MB–

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

By: Daniel Rothamel

Daniel Rothamel — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:27:19 +0000

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.

By: C

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 01:16:21 +0000

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.

By: MB

MB — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:28:27 +0000

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.

By: Daniel Rothamel

Daniel Rothamel — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:11:27 +0000

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.

By: UVA08

UVA08 — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:49:38 +0000

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.