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Commissioners direct staff to limit active‑depth rules to first two floors on primary facades
Summary
Charlottesville planning commissioners instructed staff to draft code edits that limit active‑depth requirements on primary street facades to the first two floors, exempt spaces contained within residential units, remove 'hall' from the nonactive‑space list, and continue to prohibit parking in the active‑depth zone. Staff will refine wording and return for public review.
Charlottesville Planning Commission members agreed at a work session to ask staff to draft targeted changes to the city's development code that narrow how "active depth" applies on primary street facades. The near‑term direction narrows active‑depth obligations to the first two stories on primary facades, exempts anything contained inside a residential unit from the requirement, removes "hall" from the list of nonactive spaces so circulation can count as active, and preserves a prohibition on parking within the active‑depth area.
Commissioner (committee member) summarized the group's direction: "So what I've got so far is, on a primary facade, we'd like to limit active depth, to the 1st And 2nd Floor. And then, we're also looking at limits or, active depth is not applied to anything that's within a residential unit. And we are still forbidding parking from active depth." The instruction to staff was procedural: draft precise code language reflecting the consensus and return the language for additional review and public engagement rather than adopting new numeric depths immediately.
The change responds to practical problems commissioners raised: the current code in some zones requires active depth across the entire facade (commonly 30 feet in node and downtown zones), which can make buildings noncompliant if they include corridors, bathrooms or other circulation behind the street‑facing wall; it also can prevent viable designs that wrap parking with housing or offices above. Commissioners discussed precedents: Richmond and Arlington were cited as having shallower active‑depth thresholds in some zones, and members suggested 15–25 feet as possible alternatives to 30 feet, but staff recommended leaving numeric depth values for a future, broader review to avoid cascading edits across the code.
Staff said the exemption for residential unit interiors should be written to capture individual units (including duplexes and rowhouse units) rather than entire mixed‑use buildings, and that transparency requirements would still apply to facades. Commissioners emphasized they wanted a narrowly scoped, implementable change now and the option to revisit depth numbers later. The commission did not take public comment at this session; staff will produce a redline and a short justification memo for the next review.
