CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – It took no time at all for local residents to voice their frustrations loud and clear to the developers of the Dairy Central project, Stony Point Development Group, at a community meeting on the third phase of the project at the Jefferson School on Wednesday evening.

The meeting was attended by well over 100 residents, including many from neighborhoods like 10th & Page and Rose Hill, which could be impacted by the project. Speakers accused the developers of not listening to the community during the development of the project, which began in 2017.

“I came because I was hoping that (a community) presence was also going to be here,” community organizer Anna Malinowski told Cville Right Now afterward. “And I also wanted the developers to know that they can’t just come into our town and raise our rent and buy up people’s lands and do something, to me, that looks like urban renewal.”

The proposed third phase of the project is slated to add 276 apartments, including 30 affordable units, as well as 133 hotel rooms and parking.

Many at Wednesday’s meeting expressed concerns over the property raising their taxes and rent, potentially pricing them out of the area. Others suggested that the $2 million Stony Point offered to contribute to local neighborhoods paled in comparison to the millions the developer could make on the project.

Other concerns included the proposed relocation of the local laundromat across the street at a warehouse property on West Street. Stony Point’s attorney, Steve Blaine, suggested that building could also house a community center.

But many were still unsatisfied, expressing how the move would make it more difficult to access laundromat, that many in the neighborhoods rely on. One man also stated he believed there “simply” was not enough room for both a laundromat, community center and parking in the proposed space, which Blaine disputed, offering to show the plans before he was cut off.

This was not the first time a public meeting had been called to discuss the proposed third phase of the project. Stony Point held a community meeting on the plans in 2023, and paused the plans indefinitely shortly thereafter.

Blaine began the meeting with a slide deck on the project and its progress, But he hadn’t yet finished the presentation when Zyahna Bryant, Charlottesville City School Board member and granddaughter of 10th & Page Neighborhood Association President Vizena Howard, began to speak up.

She quickly began moderating the meeting from there, at times expressing her frustrations to Blaine and the other representatives from Stony Point, particularly its president, Chris Henry.

Before the meeting, 10th & Page Neighborhood Association Vice President James Bryant described the neighborhood’s relationship with Stony Point as “skeptical.” Bryant told Cville Right Now she agreed.

“They’ve been making a lot of assumptions about the knowledge and the understanding of how development works, of the neighbors,” Bryant said. “And so when the neighbors make proposals or when they bring forth ideas, there’s always a kind of undertone of not believing or wanting to believe what the neighbors are saying about their lived experiences.”

That was a common criticism made during the meeting toward Stony Point, with many feeling the developers saw the residents as not smart enough to understand what was happening.

“You think we’re dumb,” Malinowski told the developers at one point. “We’re not dumb. We know exactly what’s going on.”

For the majority of the meeting, only Blaine spoke on behalf of Stony Point, occasionally answering questions or providing some additional info. Henry did not speak until an hour in, when directly challenged by a woman who criticized Henry for having his lawyer speak for him.

When pushed by the crowd, Henry eventually responded, asking the woman, “Where would you like to start?”

“We’ve been here to listen to what the community’s concerns were,” he later added. “We’ve heard many of those tonight, and we’re gonna do our best to address as many of those concerns with the project, within the confines of the project, as we can.”

Henry told Cville Right Now afterward the next steps for the projects he would like to see are “more communication with neighborhood leaders, so we can unpeel more of these issues, try to roll up our sleeves and find ways to great win-wins and solve the problems that are coming up.”

Mayor Juandiego Wade and City Councilor Michael Payne were both in attendance at the meeting, and both spoke. Payne repeated his criticisms of the zoning ordinance that was passed by City Council in 2023, saying it did not provide enough protections for historically Black neighborhoods.

Payne said he would support a zoning text amendment to the code that requires a community benefits agreement between developers and neighborhood leaders before a special use permit could be approved by City Council. Wade also expressed his support toward a potential zoning text amendment that “to see how we can get more support and strength from the neighborhoods.”

“I’d like to do it at the next meeting or as soon as we can,” Payne told Cville Right Now. “Because it’s been over a year that the community has requested that we initiate a zoning text amendment process, which doesn’t even commit city council to changing anything, but it’s the process we need to start in order to investigate what our options are and what options we want to take.”

For now, the Dairy Central Phase 3 application is currently under review by the city’s Neighborhood Development Services’ Development Review Division, Long-Range Planning Manager Ose Akinlotan told Cville Right Now in a email on Tuesday. Stony Point has yet to receive final approval for the project and is currently addressing comment from the city’s initial review, with revised material due Oct. 23.

Wednesday’s community meeting was a part of the project’s development review process, as it is subject to the City’s Transportation Demand Management requirements.