Return to Virginia Business - July 2002

by Jack Milligan

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Sometimes a place can be too damn lovely for its own good.
The attractiveness of small town life, combined with the economic and cultural benefits of a world-class university and the tranquil beauty of the Virginia countryside, has made Charlottesville one of the most desirable places to live in the U.S. A little too desirable if you were to ask Jack Marshall, a retired anthropologist and population expert who recently founded ASAP - Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population. Marshall lives outside the city in Albemarle County and he worries that the county - which at 90,000 people has roughly twice the population of Charlottesville - is expanding too rapidly. "We've got to restrict growth, but ultimately we've got to stop it," he says.

While county leaders may disagree with Marshall's no-growth agenda, they feel his pain. And their chosen remedy is a growth management plan that draws heavily on the principles of Smart Growth, a land-use concept that promotes greater density and mixed-use development as a prescription against the kind of suburban sprawl that threatens to overrun many parts of the country like a kudzu vine on steroids.
Albemarle County is not the only Virginia community experimenting with Smart Growth. Another example is Loudoun County, where the population nearly doubled in the 1990s. That county is in the midst of a comprehensive re-mapping project that may result in many rural areas being downzoned to protect them from residential development. Planning Director Julie Pastor expects the county's Board of Supervisors to vote on zoning changes this fall. "I'm very confident that something is going to happen, and it's going to be bigger than a bread box." Pastor also expects the changes to be challenged in court. "This could be a major test of our legal fortitude," she adds.

The arbiter that may ultimately decide whether Smart Growth succeeds in Albemarle is the market itself. The county's growth management plan, which has gone through several changes since it was first adopted in the 1970s, seeks to encourage significant development in specific locations throughout the 726-square-mile county while protecting its rural environs from sprawl. These development areas total just 36 square miles, which places a premium on density - a form of land rationing that could be a tough sell to future home buyers. The county can't force developers to build high-density projects, or make consumers buy homes there. "The efficient and effective use of that 36 miles is critical," says V. Wayne Cilimberg, Albemarle's director of planning and community development. "And just as important is being attractive, because in the end it has to be market accepted."

Governmental leaders in Albemarle County fret about growth the way Dutchmen worry about the sea. While the city of Charlottesville is eager to relocate small and medium-sized service companies - particularly technology firms that can benefit from a symbiotic relationship with the University of Virginia - Albemarle County doesn't spend a dime to attract people or employers to the area. "The county's approach has been to accommodate but not to recruit," says Cilimberg.

The reason is simple: Albemarle County consistently adds between 1,500 and 2,000 new residents a year, most of whom arrive from outside the area. That kind of growth contributes to sprawl and puts a strain on the county's resources, including schools, roads and basic services. Dennis Rooker, a member of the county's board of supervisors, explains that it costs Albemarle over $8,000 a year to educate one child in its public schools. The county pays about 70 percent of that tab - and yet the taxes on a $300,000 home on two acres of land don't come close to covering the county's costs. "Residential growth rarely pays for itself," says Rooker. And because the local unemployment rate averages just 2 percent, companies that relocate to the area often must bring their workers with them - which adds to the demand for housing.

So what's a county to do? "The real issue is not whether we'll have growth," says Rooker. "It's how we plan for the growth we'll have." To that end, Albemarle's comprehensive land-use plan has designated 11 locations as preferred development zones. Most of the building under the county's plan would take place in neighborhoods that surround Charlottesville, although three areas that are further out in the county - the small community of Crozet at Albemarle's western edge, another site called Pantops well east of the city and a third section along the crowded U.S. 29 corridor north of town - have been designated for growth as well.

The county has also adopted an ambitious set of design guidelines called The Neighborhood Model, which incorporates many Smart Growth tenets. It hopes the guidelines will shape building in the 11 zones. The model proposes a new form of residential development that among other things features interconnected streets to facilitate traffic flow, neighborhood centers, open public spaces and clear boundaries between development and rural areas. The model also calls for a mixture of residential and commercial uses, including shops and small service establishments that are within easy walking distance of most residents. Most importantly of all, perhaps, it encourages a higher concentration of houses per acre of land than previous Albemarle County residential developments.

County leaders want new communities that are denser and less reliant on the automobile for access to important services - in short, more urban in their character. What they don't want is more of what Albemarle already has: sprawling subdivisions of low density housing on two or three acre lots, many of them situated on cul-de-sacs that can only be accessed from congested feeder roads. "We can have more density with a better quality of life if we plan for it," says Rooker.

The Neighborhood Model is slowly being implemented in the county, beginning in Crozet, where two new residential developments incorporate certain Smart Growth principles. An even more ambitious project called Rivanna Village is being planned for a 75-acre site east of Charlottesville. The project will combine about 400 living units - most likely town houses and apartments - with approximately 250,000 square feet of commercial space. While the county has been highly supportive, there are still necessary zoning changes that must be made before Rivanna Village can be built as a mixed-use project. And the county will also have to approve a detailed site plan before construction can proceed. Conforming to a new development paradigm takes time when local ordinances don't mesh with the vision of land-use planners. "We're at least two years away from being able to start anything, possibly longer," says the project's developer, Steve Runkle, president at Charlottesville-based Kessler Group. Runkle declined to provide a cost estimate for developing Rivanna Village, but one real estate expert says it could approach $100 million.

It's too early to predict whether the Smart Growth initiative will succeed at reducing suburban sprawl in Albemarle County. Runkle says the Kessler Group is trying to respond to the spirit of the county's Neighborhood Model, but not without a monetary risk that's above and beyond what developers normally assume. A large house on a two-acre lot might be an inefficient use of land, but it may offer the living experience that many Albemarle County residents still prefer. "The closer I get to the Neighborhood Model, the more economic risk I assume," says Runkle.

That increased risk comes about in a couple of different ways. Runkle's specialty is residential development and the mixed-use aspect of the Rivanna Village plan - a central tenant in Smart Growth thinking - is a new area for him. "I typically don't deal with retailers," he says. "I might know what I'm talking about and I might not." And banks - which also tend to specialize - might be more reluctant to finance mixed-use projects if they haven't done so before. "The financing aspect gets cumbersome and difficult," he says.

Another local developer - Frank Stoner, chief operating officer at Stonehouse Development, a subsidiary of Charlottesville-based Robert Hauser Homes Inc. - questions whether the Albemarle market will accept only Smart Growth construction with its high-density and mixed-use characteristics. Stoner currently is planning a couple of projects in Charlottesville that will incorporate Smart Growth thinking, so he supports the concept. "But is this the model for development, or a model for development?" Stoner asks. "If it is the only model that is available, I think the county is going to be in for an unpleasant surprise. There will be more (rural) development rather than less." If future home-buyers spurn a product that conforms to the Neighborhood Model, there's nothing to prevent local developers from initiating more conventional lower density projects in rural areas of the county where current zoning ordinances allow them.

Consultant Ed Risse, a principal at Fairfax-based Synergy Planning Inc., counters that while the cost of developing Smart Growth projects will most likely be higher - which could cut into the developer's profits - the product does sell. Citing data from the Urban Land Institute, Risse observes that homes in Smart Growth communities that offer such amenities as interconnected streets and open spaces sell at a premium-at prices 20 percent to 30 percent higher than comparable homes.

Many Albemarle residents have a pull-up-the-ladder attitude about growth - now that they're here, they'd be happy if no one else came. The county's land-use plans have already run into some resistance. Residents in Crozet - a sleepy hamlet 10 miles west of Charlottesville that enjoys a beautiful view of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains - worry that a drastic increase in people, thanks to high-density development, will overwhelm their modest public resources, including roads and schools. Jack Marshall, who once taught applied anthropology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and then spent several years working on population issues for the World Health Organization, says residents there are right to be concerned. Marshall intends to promote his anti-growth agenda through education, research and public advocacy. In his view, the county can't accommodate its current level of growth without serious ramifications. "We've got to deal with this," he says. "We've got to recognize that our environment can't sustain it."

With upwards of 2,000 new residents moving into Albemarle County every year, Marshall's goal of zero population growth may be unattainable. Given the area's many charms, it would be foolish to think that people won't keep moving there. Albemarle County must plan for that growth somehow, and it can only hope that Smart Growth turns out to be the smart thing to do.

Return to Virginia Business - July 2002