Residents, organizers urge limits on West Main student towers and call for neighborhood overlay

Residents and neighborhood advocates urged the Charlottesville Planning Commission on Sept. 9 to restrict large by‑right student housing projects on West Main Street and to restore discretionary review that would give impacted neighborhoods more say.

Speakers described proposals for tall student housing buildings on West Main Street and nearby hillsides and said the projects would overshadow adjacent, historically Black neighborhoods such as West Haven and Fifeville. Several called for a “core neighborhood overlay” from Fourth to Tenth streets and asked the commission to reintroduce special‑use permit review for developments adjacent to these neighborhoods.

The crowd’s testimony centered on two recent pre‑applications noted earlier in commission reports: a proposed building at 835–847 West Main Street described in a pre‑application as large student housing, and a separate proposal that residents said could reach seven stories above Fifeville. Residents said…