Charlottesville-Albemarle Project (VA)
Protecting a #1 Community
©Charles Shoffner
Charlottesville's downtown pedestrian mall is a model of community planning
The Charlottesville-Albemarle area, with its vibrant culture, rich history and scenic setting, is consistently recognized as one of the best places to live in the country. These attributes continue to attract newcomers to the area, which has experienced substantial growth in recent years.
While growth has brought jobs, increased property values and other benefits, it has also been accompanied by sprawling development. Air pollution from increased driving is on the rise; water quantity and quality are threatened by rapid development; farmland and natural areas are giving way to a spreading sea of roads, malls and subdivisions; and people spend more and more time stuck in traffic. The economic, environmental and health consequences of continuing on this course of haphazard growth threatens the very qualities that make the Charlottesville area a special place to live, work and visit.
Fortunately, there are many opportunities at hand to steer our community toward more sensible growth. After several years of working on urgent issues in the community (the Charlottesville Bypass, for example), SELC has launched the Charlottesville-Albemarle Project that is actively promoting more sustainable land use and transportation patterns in the area.
Staff attorney Morgan Butler, a native Virginian who received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia, heads the new initiative. Trip Pollard, the director of our Land and Community Program, and Kay Slaughter, a senior attorney and former mayor of Charlottesville, work closely with Morgan on this new effort. By comprehensively addressing the growth challenges facing our community within the framework of this project, SELC is working to preserve the natural beauty and special character that define this area by actively engaging in local processes for reviewing devlopment and transportation proposals and by pursuing legal and policy improvements at the state level that will benefit our area.
Learn more about SELC's Charlottesville/Albemarle project.
