Today’s sponsor: Big builds, small repairs, and everything in between, Nola Builds does it all A hundred years ago today, fingerprint expert Irving Lindsay Leafe became the chief of police in Charlottesville. He would serve in the position for less than six weeks. Both pieces of information can be traced to the archives of the Charlottesville Daily Progress. What else can be found in the digital archives for September 28, 2026? Let me know what you find out! In this edition: * Updates from the Charlottesville Planning Commission that have not yet been reported in this newsletter and perhaps no other place * Charlottesville City Council reappoints Schwarz and Harness to Planning Commission * Schwarz renamed as chair while Yoder remains vice chair * A brief update on the University of Virginia’s affordable housing initiative * A brief description of the Missing Middle Committee * Planning Commissioner Carp provides an update on the quick build initiative * Area planners tour the Birdwood * No one speaks at the Planning Commission’s public hearing on a Comprehensive Plan updae * A very brief report on the Central Library Want to subscribe to an information outlet that still believes in experimenting and innovating with format? If so, put your email address in the box. Charlottesville PC update: Schwarz re-elected chair, update on UVA Housing projects A slightly less busy week gives us the chance to catch up with items in September that have so far not yet been reported. That includes two meetings that happened on the ninth day of the month at just about the same time. The first is the joint meeting of the Charlottesville City Council and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority called to order by Mayor Juandiego Wade. There are usually no action items on the agendas of work sessions but Council had to make two appointments to the Charlottesville Planning Commission before that body could meet. The terms of Carl Schwarz and Ross Harness expired on August 31, 2026. Before moving on to business with the CRHA, Council reappointed both to new terms. More from the CRHA in the next newsletter. Schwarz served two terms on the Board of Architectural Review from 2014 to the end of 2021 before being appointed to the Planning Commission beginning September 2022. He continues to serve on the BAR as the representative from the Planning Commission. Harness was appointed to the PC earlier this year to fill a vacancy left with the resignation of Phil d’Oronzio. Harness is a realtor with Long and Foster. The Planning Commission also met on September 9 for a regular meeting and the first act was to elect leadership for the next year. Schwarz had been serving as chair and Danny Yoder had been vice chair. “The nominating committee of Hosea Mitchell and myself met, and we would like to request that Carl Schwarz serve again as chair and Danny Yoder serve again as vice chair,” said Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates. Two of UVA’s affordable housing sites in holding pattern With new chairs in place, Planning Commissioners gave updates including non-voting member Michael Joy who had updates on the University of Virginia’s plans to contribute land for affordable housing projects. Just before the pandemic, former UVA President Jim Ryan had announced that up to 1,500 units would be built on three sites. UVA selected a group called Preservation of Affordable Housing to develop a two-acre site at the intersection of 10th and Wertland as well as the Piedmont Housing Alliance to build on a 12-acre tract of land off of Fontaine Avenue known as Piedmont. Both are in a holding pattern and Joy said both projects are dealing with fundamental shifts in what he called the affordable housing industry. “These shifts have been creating funding challenges, both nationally and locally, which is impacting affordable housing development,” Joy said. “The timing for this construction is contingent on the financing and the entitlements, and both of which are currently being worked through.” Preservation of Affordable Housing had submitted plans for a six story building at 1000 Wertland Street that would have 180 units with about 16,000 square feet of non-residential space. The city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services signed off on a development plan but a final site plan will need to be approved. In addition, the project needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the BAR, a body that was not ready to grant one in February 2025. The Piedmont Housing Alliance submitted a rezoning in December 2025 for the Piedmont site for 375 units but has since asked for an indefinite deferral. “Both of these sites are being treated as unique developments and they’ll continue to progress on their own timelines,” Joy said. The third site is at North Fork and UVA has selected Bluestone Land LLC as a development partner. “North Fork is a very different site from the initial two properties in terms of size, scale, project phasing, and affordability mix,” reads the website of the President’s Council on UVA-Community Partnerships. “We anticipate market rate and workforce/middle-income housing in addition to affordable units at this site.” Previous coverage: * University of Virginia resumes housing initiative for up to 1,500 units, April 30, 2021 * UVA announces three sites for affordable housing projects, December 14, 2021 * University of Virginia issues first request for qualifications for affordable housing developer, June 10, 2022 * Nonprofits have been asked to work on UVA housing projects, February 15, 2023 * UVA Foundation seeks firms to build 600 units of mixed-income housing at North Fork, November 26, 2024 * A quick update on the UVA Housing Initiative, July 24, 2026 * UVA still committed to affordable housing initiative launched during Ryan administration, C-Ville Weekly, July 29, 2026 Sponsored message: Panorama Natural Burial At Panorama Natural Burial, we believe caring for the deceased can be simple, meaningful, and deeply connected to the natural world. As a natural burial ground just outside Charlottesville, we offer families an alternative to traditional burial that honors both the people we love and the land that will carry them forward. Whether you are planning ahead, navigating a recent loss, or are just curious about natural burial, we welcome the conversation. We host regular tours and community events throughout the year. At Panorama we are building new ways of understanding death, land, ecology, ritual, memory, and community. We believe that building community around death care helps us all to live fuller lives. We are open to the public daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Come visit! Missing Middle working group update Last week, the Stony Point Development Group held a required community meeting for the third phase of Dairy Central, a mixed-use project that is just under the threshold required for City Council to approve a special exception permit for additional height. In other words, this project is by-right under the city’s 2023 zoning code. That Development Code is the third and final component of the Cville Plans Together initiative, a series of projects intended to increase the amount of housing that could be built across the city of Charlottesville. The Affordable Housing Plan was the first and it called for “soft density” across the city which resulted in a Future Land Use Map and a new zoning which allows for many more residential units without City Council’s input. “Soft density” is also known as “missing middle” and the ability is embedded in the Development Code. One example of this in practice can be seen at 1040 St. Clair Avenue in the Locust Grove neighborhood on which a single-family home will be demolished to make way for six units. The 0.213 acre parcel is zoned Residential-A, which allows six units on a lot if half of them are designated affordable. Learn more in this story from August 2026. A final site plan has been approved. A working group of developers, staff, and other interested parties is leading efforts to loosen regulations in order to make it even easier for builders to construct more homes. The Planning Commission got an update on this missing middle work group from Ross Harness who said utilities are a barrier. “It was also noted difficulties that arise from the city having a gravity-fed only sewer system and how sometimes that prevents lots in town from even being reached without having a private pump system that… increases the cost of construction of those properties and long-term maintenance on the private side,” Harness said. Harness said there are many city policies that are preventing more housing units from being constructed such as requiring structures built on sublots needing to be spaced apart. He said the purpose of the group is to identify what developers call constraints. “Next steps for this group are a site visit to some of the parcels that some of the members of the subcommittee have so that we can actually get out there and have a little bit more physical discussion about some of these constraints,” Harness said. The Missing Middle work group is an informal committee, but I asked the city to provide a list of members. This was what was provided on September 10. * Local Builders and Developers: Bob Pineo, A.J. Amigoni, Richard Price, Nicole Scro, Dan Zimmerman, Trent Lawhorn, and Dan Rosensweig * Neighborhood Development Service: Matt Alfele, Carrie Rainey, Dannan O’Connell, Ben Koby, Madelyn Metzler, and Chuck Miller * Public Works: Brennan Duncan, Caleb Smith * Fire: Jason Campbell * Utilities: Cody Tusing, Calvin Chan, Chuck Drennen, and Donald Schrager * City Attorney’s Office: J Vaden Hunt and one other staff member * Planning Commission: Ross Harnes and Betsy Roettger Learn more about the Missing Middle Work Group here and also here on Connect Charlottesville. Quick-builds stuck? In the wake of a pedestrian being k
