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Neighbors and residents urge big changes to proposed 11‑story West Main development; developers point to stepbacks and outreach
Summary
At a long Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review pre-application session, dozens of West Haven residents and advocates told the board an 11‑story proposal for 835–847 West Main would overwhelm the neighborhood, block proposed pedestrian connections and recreate past displacements; the applicant said it has studied stepbacks, landscaping and active ground-floor uses and will revise plans.
Charlottesville — Dozens of residents and community organizers used a Board of Architectural Review pre-application conference to press developers to shrink and reshape a proposed multi-parcel project on West Main Street, saying the building as currently conceived would loom over West Haven and block a planned pedestrian 'memory walk' that residents say is crucial to reconnecting the neighborhood to Main Street.
"This is not repair. This is not healing. This is exclusion dressed as development," said Latricia Giles, executive director of the Public Housing Association of Residents (FAR), who told the board she represents West Haven and Tenth and Page neighbors with a history of displacement and exclusion.
Why it matters: The applicant’s concept relies on current zoning that permits taller, denser development on this stretch of West Main (zoning cited in staff materials as CX‑8). Residents, neighborhood leaders and a city councilor said the proposed massing — with representations of up to 11 stories in…
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