As you may have already heard, on Wednesday June 4 the Albemarle County voted on the special use permit request to fill in 1.5 acres of the Moore’s Creek Flood Plain. It was a tie – and a tie doesn’t approve.

Voted not to approve: Mike Pruitt, Ann Mallek, Jim Andrews

Voted to approve: Bea LaPisto-Kirtley, Ned Gallaway, Diantha McKeel

Thank you very much for your support.

A goodly number of Carlton/Hogwaller/Franklin Street/Carlton Mobile Home Community/Woolen Mill residents thank you too.

While the focus of the deliberations were engineers assuring the board that the proposal was compliant with (outdated) FEMA regulations, they also recognized the highly unique characteristics of this flood plain as a backwater for the confluence of Moores Creek and the Rivanna River.

The developer still has 160,000 of approved light industrial square footage to construct on the southeastern slope that drains directly into this flood plain, and can use portions of this lot for the stormwater catchment needed for that.

This area is NOT zoned mixed-use and this was NOT a residential proposal, as some people have misunderstood. It’s a City residential neighborhood facing a County light industrial district, with a large new affordable housing project on the City side also (the redevelopment of the Carlton Mobile Home community), and the new Broadway Blueprint for industrial development on the County side.

The developer had already stockpiled rubble and fill (deposit from the road cuts on the slope) in a large portion of this lot – so there is remediation needed. It’s my hope that we can advocate for a public stormwater management park and maybe even a kayak launch and trail connections. Dream big, right?

Lastly, there have been multiple mentions from County officials of these light industrial projects providing “local jobs for residents of the neighborhood they can walk to.” I sincerely hope this is the case. While the County can’t require it, there are precedents for municipalities using various means to compel and incentivize that.

Both of these strategies – stormwater management and local jobs – would be a huge win for this neighborhood, the County, Charlottesville, and the Rivanna River - on top of the recent investment here in affordable housing. It could also represent benefits to the developers of the Woolen Mills Light Industrial Park – public good will, public partnerships and grants, and more.

I hope they can pivot to imagining some of these possibilities.

Thank you,

Jenny Mikulski & many others -

718 Franklin Street