I am genuinely curious as to where the Planning Commission and Albemarleians (and Crozetians) would want new homes to be built. Please, point to a map and say, “this is where 18 or 50 or 100 houses should go.”
(note: 29 North has hundreds and hundreds of houses in the short term pipeline, and Greene County has thousands. And every house we push out to Greene instead of building here is more 29 and 33 traffic, more SUVs, longer commutes. “Over there” isn’t neutral — it’s the car-dependent option. Building where people already work and go to school is the version with less driving.)
We say we want affordable housing. Houses become more affordable when more supply is provided.
And when an opportunity comes up to build more houses, the answer is always, “no, not here.”
At some point, “over there” needs to become “here.”
I am a broken record. We need to think generationally as a society when we’re making housing decisions. In the vein of “plant trees the shade of which you’ll never enjoy,” let’s build houses – and infrastructure and community for our kids and grandkids to appreciate, enjoy, and live in.
If you say you want affordable housing, but don’t want more houses, what solution do you propose?
Quite the discussion on FB and bluesky and bluesky
““Cory Farms is zoned R-4 and to the east are more recent rezonings, with Liberty Hall zoned Neighborhood Model District and developed at about six dwelling units per acre,” said county planner Rebecca Ragsdale.
The new conceptual plan called for two building zones with up to 11 units, each to be served by separate vehicular entrances. Four of the units would be designated as affordable.
Justin Shimp, civil engineer for the project, said he understood neighbors might be unhappy with the inconvenience, but encouraged the Planning Commission to look at a broader picture.
“We have to increase this density to get a more diverse housing type and affordable units,” Shimp said. “Four affordable units [would be] something like $260,000 a piece. So that’s a very deeply affordable product in the middle of Crozet that really wouldn’t exist without a project like this.
Around a dozen people spoke at the public hearing, with all but one in opposition.”
~ From C-Ville. Please read the whole thing.
Deed restricted affordable houses are good. Are we going to do that for everything? No. Can we trust that things will *stay* affordable? No.
Can we advocate for more housing in addition to affordable houses? Yes.
More houses = more supply = more affordable housing.
This is not my chart. It’s Michael’s, from a great thread.
Note: We also need more non-car infrastructure so that we can get around without having get in cars and SUVs.
And yes, I’m a realtor with Nest Realty in Charlottesville and I live in Crozet, and I’ve lived in Crozet for 20+ years. I benefit when I represent buyer and sellers, and my wife and I benefit more by living in a great community and raising a family here.
This is a bigger conversation than a blog post or thread or Facebook post. At some point, we need to do more than recognize the housing crisis and work to fix it. What we’ve been doing is not working.
We need to think differently, and perhaps smaller.
Across the country and throughout North Carolina, people are struggling with rising housing costs and population growth, coupled with the growing imperative to create more sustainable communities. In Raleigh, one of the most promising solutions is surprisingly small: Accessory Dwelling Units, better known as ADUs.
Sometimes called backyard cottages, granny flats, carriage houses, or garage apartments, ADUs are small, secondary homes on the same property as an existing residence. They can take the form of a detached backyard home, an apartment above a garage, an in-unit (often basement) conversion, or an addition attached to the primary house.
For decades, these kinds of homes were heavily restricted or outright illegal in Raleigh and many American cities. But Raleigh’s recent reforms have helped change that. Today, the city is becoming a leader in showing how ADUs can support affordability, sustainability, and neighborhood evolution, and possibly help welcome some of our neighborhood NIMBYs into the YIMBY movement.
ADUs can help people rethink what housing growth and new neighbors actually look like. They have the power to turn skeptical, even long-time homeowners into active participants in solving the housing shortage. While ADUs won’t solve the housing crisis on their own, they are an integral part of the solution.
Something to say?