CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update at its Wednesday meeting. The plan is one county staff have spent years working on.

“It’s a policy document that really showcases the vision of what everyone sees for this county for the next couple of decades,” said county Communications Director Abbey Stumpf. “It’ll show and guide how decisions are made related to development and conservation and really help Albemarle County continue to grow thoughtfully and in the way everyone whose chimed in and given plenty of feedback and engagement on what they’d like to see in our community and our county.”

According to the agenda item, the county planning commission held a public hearing on Sept. 30 and adopted a resolution to amend and recommend approval of AC44.  The Board of Supervisors held its final scheduled work session of AC44 on Oct. 1.  Staff has addressed the Board’s comments and feedback from that work session into the final draft of AC44 proposed for adoption at Wednesday’s public hearing.

Stumpf notes one thing that’s the same in this Albemarle County ’44 plan that has been since the county’s first adopted plan back in 1971 is the focus on concentrating growth and public sector investments in development areas while protecting rural lands for agriculture, forestry, and conservation.

New components Stumpf points out are updated land use categories and a future land use map.

“There’s also something called ‘activity centers’ in employment districts designed for walkable, transit-friendly mixed-use areas.”

One of the issues that arose in the October 1 work session was concern some supervisors expressed about language in the plan involving “removing underperforming areas from the development areas” where some language suggests a swap with land designated in rural areas, such as the 400 acres of land now that will not be developed which is Biscuit Run Park. While this language is included in the document before the Board, supervisors suggest the language and criteria are too vague to include as is.

Stumpf said it’s important residents watch the meeting and hear supervisors’ Wednesday night input.

“Again, this is a public hearing, so people should tune in and see how that conversation goes with the supervisors,” Stump said.

“The public hearing it to see if the document is adopted by our election officials, so I’m going to encourage everyone to either attend or tune in on the live stream so you can see how that conversation happens.”

Stumpf said whatever’s passed will not go into effect until Jan. 1, which gives time for staff to work through the steps for implementation.