Planning commission reviews AC44 'Thriving Economy' chapter; members press for more site-ready land, housing and workforce steps

Albemarle County planning staff presented the “Thriving Economy” chapter of AC44 to the Planning Commission during a March 11 work session, asking commissioners for feedback on draft objectives and actions that focus on land use, site readiness and workforce supports.

The chapter, which planning staff said is intended to guide a 20-year implementation horizon, emphasizes maintaining an inventory of land and infrastructure for employment uses, encouraging infill and redevelopment in activity centers, supporting small businesses and workforce development, and aligning the comprehensive plan with a forthcoming economic development strategic plan.

“AC44 recognizes the economic development Strategic Plan as the primary document guiding the county’s economic development and growth,” Ben Holt, presenting for the AC44 team, told the commission. “The draft chapter actions are more focused on land use and regulatory efforts, which are less likely to change with future strategic-plan input.”

Why it matters: The AC44 comprehensive plan will shape the county’s long-range land-use decisions and help prioritize projects in the capital-improvement plan. Commissioners said the economy chapter needs to address where jobs will locate, how to provide a range of building sizes and types, and how to retain and train a local workforce — not only recruit employees from outside the county.

Commission questions and staff responses

Commissioners focused on three interrelated issues: the supply of development-ready sites for target industries, reuse and redevelopment inside the county, and housing and services that let workers live locally.

Tori Kanalopoulos, the county’s principal long-range planner, said the county’s build-out analysis flagged only a handful of development-area parcels that are “site ready.” “We did not create a map of those parcels,” she said, adding that the analysis was an internal, high-level review that identified many sites at tier 2 or 3 rather than tier 4 or 5 in the site-readiness scale.

Emily Kilroy of the county’s economic team explained the five-tier site-readiness model that economic development uses. “Tier 5 is actually not often the end target that economic developers are focused on,” she said. “Tier 4 is sort of that the site is cleared, it’s graded, it’s got a preliminary site plan — it’s very quick to get to vertical construction.” Kilroy said most county parcels fall in tiers 2–3 and staff will prioritize which can most readily move to tier 4.

Several commissioners said the county’s apparent shortfall of “site-ready” land may overstate the shortfall because redevelopment and institutional properties (for example, foundation- or university-owned land) may provide capacity. Commissioner Moore asked whether the county’s build-out assumptions account for redevelopment of underused sites along Route 29.

“We would want to do a more in-depth study,” Kanalopoulos replied, and staff said they plan a refinement of the build-out analysis this year that will look more closely at redevelopment potential.

Housing and workforce supports

Commissioners repeatedly raised workforce housing, childcare and training as essential complements to land-use strategies. Emily Kilroy said the county is coordinating a new economic development strategic plan to be finalized ahead of the AC44 adoption, and that plan will contain detailed implementation steps on workforce alignment and business retention.

“Jobs that are created here can be accessible to a broad spectrum of the community,” Kilroy said, citing a recent private-sector expansion by a local advanced-manufacturing firm as an example. “There’s a grant partnership to better align training at high schools, community college and the university to help community members take advantage of those opportunities.”

Redevelopment, tax incentives and incubator space

Commissioners and several members of the public who were present urged the county to make redevelopment easier and to consider incentives or public–private partnerships for infill projects. Commissioners cited the Home Depot redevelopment near Fashion Square as an example of how a modest public investment unlocked a larger private project.

Commissioner Carazano recommended the county promote higher-density redevelopment in underused retail nodes rather than permitting one-story replacements that do not add housing or office capacity.

Next steps

Staff told the commission it expects to publish the last draft topic chapter in June, hold Board work sessions on the chapter in April, and aims for board adoption of AC44 later in the calendar year. Commissioners asked staff to return with more detailed maps of tiered sites and with a refined build-out analysis that explicitly considers institutional land and redevelopment opportunities.

Quotes in context

Ben Holt, AC44 project staff, summarized the plan’s role: “The comprehensive plan contains many actions across the 10 AC44 topic chapters. These actions will be taken as a whole and evaluated to determine the key actions that will be used to inform the six objectives within the board’s strategic plan.”

Tori Kanalopoulos, Principal Planner, clarified the tier system: “Tier 1 is basically raw land that’s privately owned. Tier 2 is the comp-plan designation is aligned with what that future use could be. Tier 3, you’ve done your zoning in place. … Tier 4 is that you’ve got all your infrastructure in place.”

Commissioner Bivens voiced a common concern about the limited land base: “If you’re looking at sort of 20 years’ worth of growth and we’re already in a constrained amount of area that we’re trying to push density into, density and commercial and light industrial don’t appear to have enough land to sit off.”

Ending note

Staff will revise the build-out analysis and return to the commission with maps and more details on which tier-2 and tier-3 parcels can realistically be advanced to tier 4, and how the economic strategic plan will be used to refine AC44’s final implementation actions.