Places29 Master Plan

The Places29 Master Plan is designed to guide and direct future development in terms of land uses, transportation projects, and other infrastructure projects in the 14.5 square miles four designated growth areas that surround the US 29 corridor through northern Albemarle County. The Places29 Master Plan will be an adopted component of the County's Comprehensive Plan.

Much of the County's future growth is expected to come in the Places29 area.

Scope of Places29 Master Plan

The Places29 Plan encompasses Albemarle County's four Development Areas to the north of the City of Charlottesville. The areas are Neighborhood 1, Neighborhood 2, the Community of Hollymead and the Community of Piney Mountain. The Plan relies on a 20 year planning horizon to implement recommendations.

After the plan is adopted, planners will work with property owners on Small Area Plans to guide development in specific locations, to encourage the creation of necessary infrastructure as well as to examine redevelopment options.

(Image from Places29 Master Plan Draft, Revised 2/2009)

Vision Statement for Places29

"Albemarle County’s four Northern Development Areas will feature compact development consisting of residential and employment neighborhoods that are organized around centers. These neighborhoods and their centers will be pedestrian-oriented and mixed-use; they will offer a variety of housing choices, retail environments, office types, and employment opportunities. They will be connected by an attractive, efficient, and accessible multimodal transportation system. Integrated into this urban-style development, parks and open spaces will provide a sense of respite and contribute to an overall excellent quality of life."

Transportation

The four neighborhoods share a common thread, as US 29 passes through all of them. The UNJAM 2025 plan adopted in 2004 projected that traffic volumes on US29 will triple by 2025 to 80,000 vehicles per day through the area. The draft plan claims that north-south traffic can be handled relatively efficiently, but growth of traffic on east-west cross streets such as Hydraulic Road, Greenbrier Drive, Rio Road and Airport Road increasingly present a challenge. US29 is the only road that consistently travels north-south through all four neighborhoods.

"Simply put, the US 29 North Corridor is a place that people not only want to go through, but want to go to," County planners wrote in the draft Places29 Plan.

Bus service is currently provided along two Charlottesville Transit Service routes, each of which have 30-minute headways throughout the entire day until 11:45 PM. Pedestrians, however, lack sufficient places to safely cross US 29. One of the goals of Places29 is to make the area more walkable.

History

The Places29 Master Plan has been drafted through a series of public workshops and Planning Commission work sessions. The process began with an educational "Citizen's Planning Academy" in which participants were introduced to the basic tools of planning and land use management so that their engagement in the process could be more productive and beneficial to the community.

The Albemarle County Planning Commission held several work sessions on Places29 throughout 2007, and the Board of Supervisors held one in September of 2007. Consultants are now finishing the text of the Master Plan. Commissioners have yet to take up the Implementation and Design Guidelines chapters.

The primary contact for the plan is Judy Wiegand, Senior Planner, Albemarle County.

Even though the plan has not yet been adopted, it still influences the Albemarle County Planning Commission. On April 1, 2008, the Commission recommended denial of a rezoning on Berkmar Drive in part because the developer (Stonehaus) had not proffered to complete a connector road to link Berkmar to US Route 29.

Timeline after adoption

The draft Places29 Master Plan uses a 20-year planning horizon as the timeline for implementation. The implementation plan, which is still under development as of March 2009, is split into recommendations for the first ten years and the second ten years.

Organization of the Places29 Master Plan

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Vision and Guiding Principles

Chapter 3 Existing Conditions and Future Trends

Chapter 4 The Future Land Use Plan and Transportation Network

Chapter 5 Place Types

Chapter 6 Community Facilities and Services

Chapter 7 Unified Design Guidelines

Chapter 8 Implementation

Appendix A Glossary of Terms Used in the Master Plan

Appendix B Recommended Transportation Improvements

Appendix C Public Participation Program Events and Summary

==Previous plans incorporated into study

• The US 29 North Corridor Transportation Study Final Report, dated August 18, 2008.
• The Access Management Report for US 29 (Transportation Study Technical Memo 11), dated May 25, 2007.
• Transportation Funding Options, a report prepared by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, dated October 10, 2005.
• 29H250 Phase 2 Report, Draft, prepared by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, dated September 15, 2004.
• 29H250 Intersections Study, prepared by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, dated May 2003.

Next steps

The Plan has returned to the Albemarle County Planning Commission for a series of work sessions that have occurred during February-May 2009. At its May 12, 2009 work session, the Planning Commission will consider staff's proposed format for the new List of Implementation Projects that will be placed at the end of Chapter 8, as well as a new Appendix 2, Implementation Project Descriptions.

External links

Places29 Master Plan

Charlottesville Tomorrow coverage of events in the Places29 study area