The Solution to Sprawl
Higher gas prices. From NPR (thanks to C-Ville), featuring a friend and fellow blogger, Danilo Bogdanovic: Stiff says home buyers' attitudes have changed. The old rule was, "Drive 'til you qualify" - meaning they should go out from the city until they could get what…
Transparent politics in Virginia
Politics, as distasteful and unsavory as they may seem sometimes, matter in our lives. (Darn it) Virginia is lucky and privileged to have access to some fantastic resources for investigating local and state-wide politics and politicians. Yesterday, the Virginia Public Access Project just got even…
If You Don’t Own It, It’s Going to Change
Everything Changes. Witness the new approvals from the Albemarle Board of Supervisors; pay attention to the "interconnection conundrum." If you live on a cul-de-sac, it may not always be one - one day it will likely be a through-road. New residential developments must comply with…
I guess I’ve got the traffic, and now I’ve got the convenience
Update 7 February 2020 - I'd say that Fifth Street Station (Wegmans, et al) is a rousing success. From the DP: "New fast food and restaurant chains soon will join other stores in Albemarle County’s 5th St. Station, according to a news release from developer…
Thank you, Ken Boyd
For helping to bring the annexation debate to the forefront. Bribing the City of Charlottesville clearly made sense when the agreement was made; it's time to revisit the debate. The agreement ended Charlottesville's annexation of County land and was approved by County voters in a…
Government = Higher Housing prices
Interesting. Graphic and story found at Seeking Alpha, who found it at Cafe Hayek, who refers to the actual original story. Charlottesville's Free Enterprise Forum released a comprehensive study last year enumerating some of the local impacts of government regulation on housing costs (PDF). This…
Transfer of Development Rights bill moves forward
The Transfer of Development Rights bill, HB 991, is moving forward in the General Assembly. From the Daily Progress today: Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, said his House Bill 991 would help create a pilot project to allow a market for the sale of development rights…
More on SB 768
Bacon's Rebellion has a good post today about the previously-referenced bill that would mandate impact fees on new development and eliminate proffers. The bill would remove localities' ability to negotiate (some say extort) proffers from developers; but ... is this the consequence the bill authors…
“SB768: Conditional zoning; replaces cash proffer system with system of impact fees.”
I just don't like it. When the Republican Chair of Albemarle County's Board of Supervisors, who has a history of siding with real estate interests, says that "that he had already been making personal calls in opposition to the bill," something is amiss. Realtors were…
Rural Area Protection measures pass in Albemarle County
Channel 29 says it all: What you do with your land is no longer entirely your decision if you live in Albemarle County. After many rewrites over several months, supervisors have come to terms on three ordinances. Each of those ordinances limit your property rights.…