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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZMA202100006 Correspondence 2022-05-255/25/22 Albemarle Cty. Board of Supervisors 401 McIntire Rd. Charlottesville, Va. 22902 Members of the Board, I submit to you this essay from the Daily Progress by the late Prof. Wm. Lucy of UVA. This article appeared in the Sunday paper in 10/97 as best as I can tell. It has been sitting in my file cabinet these many years. Which accounts for the quality of the copy plus the 13"x13" size. My hope is you will take the to read and ponder Prof. Lucy's analysis of the issues facing us in Albemarle County and particuliarly in the Hollymeade(Intersectionville?) area between the N. And S. Rivanna Rivers near 29N. A number of things have changed over the last 25 years or so. Still many of the problems and issues remain and are still unresolved. I submit this now in conjunction with remarks I hope to make at the public hearing on the proposed Maplewood Developemnt on 6/1/22. Thanks, Fred Gerke Proffit, Va. IN RSECTI(aiary rc;NVAh, must MOTS-s trcinsit Gv WILLIAM H. LUCY ear a highway intersection six miles north of Charlottesville, four elements of typical post - suburban development are evolving awkwardly. These elements — air- port, business park, cross -state high- way and bypass, and residential sub- divisions — are standard develop- ments across the United States. Their usual effect is to erode, rather than help build, interpersonal connections and community institutions. Ironically, creating a compact, walkable new community with jobs and housing surrounded by a green- belt also is possible. The location of, the north and south forks of the Rivanna River crossing U.S. 29 four miles apart, with the Charlottesville - Albemarle Airport about one mile west of U.S. 29, frames three sides of what could become the new greenbelt- ed community. This compact new community would be about 10 square miles, the same size as Charlottesville. If devel- opment were concentrated there, it could absorb much of the new devel- opment forecast for Albemarle County for the next few decades, reducing suburban and exurban sprawl in the remainder of the county. The concept of a new community concept in proximity to the airport and business park should be viable, but it certainly cannot be achieved by accident. If a compact new community is to evolve, it will happen through careful planning and diligent imple- mentation. Otherwise, more discon- nected pods of development will emerge there, with more low -density sprawl elsewhere, including along U.S.29into Greene County. The development of this commum- ty we'll call "Intersectionville" is being driven by high transportation capaci- ty. The 525-acre North Fork Business Park will be developed by the Univer- sity of Virginia Real Estate Founda- tion in the northwest quadrant formed by U.S. 29 and Route 649 (Air- port-Proffit Road). With up to 3 mil- lion square feet of office and research space planned, anywhere from 3,000 to 12,000 jobs could emerge there over the next 20 years. Three residential subdivisions with 2,000 dwelling units (and more than 6,000 residents) are more than two-thirds complete in the southeast quadrant. The northeast and southwest quadrants are less developed, and have less development planned currently, than the other quadrants. Current zoning permits development for more than 40,000 The goal: Channel mfill and more intensive development to the area north of Charlottesville where sufficientinfrastructire exists or can be developed; avoid the sprawl that consumes our, countryside. Thlr problem: Without assertive planning and coordination, this development will simply create a worsening jumble of shopping centers, subdivisions and highways. The solution: Carefully plan neighborhoods, employment and shopping centers and link them by mass transit. Rivanna R ve That is part of a proposal developed through a student Project at the University of Virginia School of Architecture (work done by Dan Gallagher, supervised by professors Warren Boeschenstein and Bill Sherman). The accompanying map, adapted from their work, illustrates a growth strategy based on mass transit, particularly for the U.S. 29 - University Research Paii area north of Charlottesville dubbed "Intersectionville.,, It shows circles, or centers, of residential and commercial activity linked by mass transit and punctuated with park -and -ride sites. The proposal envisions two mass -transit systems, occurring r separately or in conjunction with each other: Buses on U.S. 29 and light rail on existing railroad rights -of -way. J Buses would stop at five-minute intervals, making them more reliable and convenient. Rail access could be r Hollymead Center obtained from the companies that now own lines, and passenger service could be tightly coordinated with existing freight traffic ; Polo using Pinpoint satellite positioning technology. Grounds Road The map suggests the type of building pattern that could be used along these mass -transit routes development. to facilitate infill Eco-oral:marl Center Fashion Square Mall '°"''"�` Main Post Office Center Seminole Square Barracks Road Shopping Center Park-n-Ri residents in the Intersectionville area; current development trends in the area would lead to far fewer residents actually living there — perhaps half that number. The Albemarle County Land Use Plan for 1996 identifies this area as a community that will need additional Public facilities. But there has been no planning for where, when, how, or in what sequence these facilities should be provided, how they will be accessed, how they will be related to current and future development and where they will be within the network of topographic, slope, soil, wetlahols and river constraints. These natural constraints on devel- opment also indicate where wonderful park opportunities could be achieved. The area along the North Fork of the Rivanna River to Charlottesville, for example, could become an eightimile river park that could perform func- tions of flood control, regional recre- ation and neighborhood amenities. One large oversight is the Osence Of circulation plans for transIrorting People, goods and services fro4m one quadrant to another within Interr tionville, except through the cu- intersection of U.S. 29 and Ai-} NVIL anna River - Roads nacn.9 -Railroads - population Centers E � The first leg of Albemarle's plan- ning policy is to respect private prop- erty rights. The second leg is to pro- tect the county's eroding supply of farmland, rural density and largest watershed. The third partial leg is to designate growth areas in Char- lottesville's urban ring and historic villages. These two -and -a -half legs are useful but insufficient. Albemarle County has done little to expand the third leg, for example, with capital facilities, internal and external con- nected street networks, reserved open spaces and future public facilities sites. The fourth leg that is missing is emphasis on the emergent growth generators, such as the airport, a widened U.S. 29 and the potential Meadowereek Parkway and U.S. 29 western bypass, that will make Inter- sectionville the fastest growing and most populous area in Albemarle County whether or not it is planned. The result of Albemarle County's nAlicies has been typical of suburbia and exurbia — disconnected pods of development (subdivisions, shopping centers, industries and highway com- mercial strips). Many of these devel- opment types are accessible only from U.S. 29. More of this strip -with -pods development pattern can be anticipat- ed in Intersectionville. W The pods of post -suburban develop- ment (airport, business park, through highway, bypass, one -entrance subdi- visions and commercial shopping cen- ters and free-standing stores in park- ing lots sized for Christmas shopping) are too big to create a community by accident or evolution. There are no circulation routes to knit them togeth- er, and few parks, playgrounds public greens, community buildings and churches to be centers of activity and arenas of interaction. Each of these post -suburban development pods actually signals people to keep out unless they have specific business there. The growth -generating power in airports, business parks, highways, bypasses, subdivisions and commer- cial centers requires an active, deter- mined and persistent county govern- ment to create a new community a greenbelt that follows the branches of the Rivanna River. Creating a new community at Intersectionville — one that might Illusbefion by Lewis Rector warrant a different name than Inter- Proffit Road. Hence, I christened this non -community Intersectionville to help alert Albemarle County and Charlottesville citizens and public officials to emergent chaos that will reign there in a few years, if the gold- en opportunity to establish a well - functioning, compact community there goes awry forever. What is unsatisfactory about Albe- marle County's planning and imple- mentation policy? Albemarle County is relying on two -and -a -half legs of a four -legged planning policy stool. In consequence, the stool is unstable and will crash. sectionville — also will require collab- oration between Albemarle County and the university Real Estate Foun- dation, the Virginia Department of Transportation and Charlottesville. A new community there will abso much of the region's growth potential, reducing the amount and geographic scope of suburban and exurbs, sprawl, farm and forest loss and ero- sion of this area's remaining rural character. Kilaam H. Lucy is a professor in the University of virginia School of Architecture.