Albemarle County continues review of “AC44” Comprehensive Plan

Charlottesville Podcasting Network

I started this website 19 years ago to experiment with the production of content. At the time I was a freelancer who sold stories for public radio outlets, and the idea of podcasting opened up the potential for new markets and new ways of telling stories.

There are a lot of experiments still posted in those early days, but there was never really much regular content except for Rick Moore’s Sunday Morning Wake-Up Call and other radio shows.

When I went to work for Charlottesville Tomorrow, my ability to experiment was restricted but I began to write articles that were just text and images. The audio fell behind. Someone else became a caretaker of this site, which I could not keep up anymore.

Four years ago, I became an independent journalist again and I produce a regular newsletter and podcast called Charlottesville Community Engagement. Earlier this year, I began a new partnership with WTJU where they would air a version of the podcast on Saturday mornings.

I’ve not been posting those to this website because I ‘m not sure if there’s audience. I usually just cross-post the WTJU version to the CCE feed.

But this edition is a little different because it inadvertently became a capturing of two different meetings at which Albemarle County’s Comprehensive Plan was discussed. The four-phase review process began in the fall of 2021 and county staff took a pause at the end of the second phase.

This edition of the WTJU podcast contains sonic summaries of the July 9, 2024 meeting of the Albemarle Planning Commission and the July 17, 2024 meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. If you want to know more about the process, my reporting is one of the only non-government accounts. One of the Supervisors even noted that there were no members of the media present. Since the pandemic, I record from home.

In any case, here are some selected articles I’ve written in the past three years on what the county calls AC44.

• Albemarle Supervisors learn more about upcoming Comprehensive Plan process, October 7, 2021
• Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan review underway, February 7, 2022
• Albemarle Planning Commission reviews seven options for growth management, August 3, 2022
• Phase 2 of Albemarle Comprehensive Plan review underway, January 24, 2023
• Albemarle releases new AC44 documents on growth area expansion criteria, June 7, 2023
• To expand growth areas or not to expand? Albemarle CAC members weigh in, July 25, 2023
• Albemarle Planning Commission weighs in on criteria to expand development area, September 1, 2023
• Should uses in Albemarle’s Crossroads Communities be expanded?, September 9, 2023
• Checking in with AC44 as update’s third phase looms, November 17, 2023
• Albemarle Planning Commission urge a balance of aspiration and realism in county’s housing goals, November 26, 2023
• Speakers weigh in on Crossroads Communities in AC44, January 13, 2024
• Planning Commissioners briefed on “refinement” of AC44 process, July 17, 2024
• Public engagement to happen before Albemarle staff release AC44 draft, August 2, 2024