CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Three weeks to the day since a Charlottesville Circuit judge ruled on the bench the city’s 2024 Development Code “null and void” after a law firm defending the city missed a deadline in a suit contesting the new code, City Council has voted to pass on the same code to the Planning Commission. Because the code is set to be thrown out because of a procedural error rather than a material finding, the city intends to keep the new zoning ordinance in effect one way or other.

“While the city awaits the written order from the judge, and pursues legal recourse, staff recommends initiating readoption of the development code,” said City Planner Matt Alfele in a presentation to Council.

“Once the initiation resolution is adopted, no immediate action is required from either the Planning Commission or City Council, but initiation ensures city staff and elected officials can respond swiftly to readopt the development code if the need arises.”

The Monday night Council action, though, does start a clock that the Planning Commission has 100 days to hold a public hearing and take a referral vote. The Planning Commission is an advisory body that makes recommendations to Council, and the ultimate policy decision is made by Council alone.

Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston told WINA Morning News Tuesday, “It is about housing affordability, it is about increasing the ability to build more places for people to live in Charlottesville, and it’s not a free-for-all.”

“It’s to set an envelope of what’s going to be possible given the needs that are raised in the community for housing in the market, and the willing of entrepreneurs — people don’t like the word “developer”, use the word “entrepreneurs” — who build housing for us,” Pinkston said.

Pinkston said this council and the next council are in support of this 2024 ordinance.

“We all spent, and this community spent, a whole lot of time sorting through a whole ton of emails, surveys, and meetings, and I can appreciate some people do not agree with the end result, but it wasn’t for lack of us trying to listen and make a good decision,” Pinkston continued.

“Personally, to put it mildly, I don’t appreciate the fact there’s a small group of folks who didn’t like this and they’re pulling us all through this collective process. They have the right to do that, it’s a free country, but this council is committed, and I know the next council will be too, to getting this ordinance done and making this promise real.”