Residents speak up at community facilities & services workshop

On Thursday, February 23 TJPDC, Charlottesville and Albemarle County staff hosted a fifth Community Outreach Series workshop at CitySpace.  The Facilities & Services Workshop focused on current Comprehensive Plan goals affecting emergency services, libraries, utilities, parks and recreation programming.  Attendees shared over 60 comments that addressed a wide range of issues, including current levels of service and how these services can be improved to better protect the health, safety and well-being of community residents.

If you missed the workshop, you can view posters and comments from the workshop online by visiting our Events page and submit your own feedback through our Comments page.  And don’t forget to mark your calendars for our final workshop in the Community Outreach Series addressing historic & scenic resources on Thursday, March 29 from 4-7 pm at TJPDC’s Water Street Center.

Housing & Economic Driver Community Workshop

On December 1, 2011, Many Plans One Community hosted its third outreach workshop with information pertaining to Housing and Economic Drivers. Feedback was gathered from the approximately 60 community members attending the workshop; including residents of the City, the County, and a few from surrounding localities. Reactions to City and County affordable housing policies were generally in favor of increasing the amount and variety of the area’s affordable housing while participants also noted the need for a greater mix of housing choices in the Charlottesville area. Comments pertaining to transportation were listed several times including providing sidewalks, incentivizing bike lanes, and providing better transit opportunities to affordable housing. Economic Drivers comments focused primarily on creating jobs in the area, specifically helping create and maintain local businesses, promote local sales, and attract retirees to the area. Comments were made that the City and County should work together more to attract jobs to the area and both localities could work better with UVA.

A housing survey was conducted during the workshop and then the same survey was posted on the One Community website where it was completed by more than 500 people. The survey touched upon where the person lived, why they lived there, barriers that might exist to prevent them from living where they wanted, and where they would live if those barriers did not exist. Examples of answers to these questions included cost of housing, location of jobs or family, accessibility to services and amenities, and wanted more land or quietness.

The results of the surveys answered at the December 1 event can be viewed here.

Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop!