Citizens Reject Findings in Albemarle County Planning Report | Old Ivy Road

Media Advisory FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: K. Jump - kathleenjump@gmail.com Albemarle County residents have raised concerns with the Planning Commission about the staff report on the rezoning application by Greystar, a global real estate developer and manager in rental housing, to build up to 525 rental units on Old Ivy Road (ZMA202100008). The report fails to consider a 1985 proffer that restricts development at R-1 on this parcel until "Old Ivy Road is improved to the satisfaction of the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County." Residents raise warnings about ongoing safety concerns, characterizing Old Ivy Road as intolerable in their memo. “The issue confronting Greystar’s application to build 500-plus apartments along Old Ivy Road is not about density, traffic reconfiguration, or property values. It’s about only one, very important thing: the safety of the people who depend on Old Ivy Road to get to and from work, school, and home,” said Mignon Worman Tucker, president of the Huntington Village Unit Owners Association. Local news media routinely report on the hazards plaguing Old Ivy, including regular backups during rush hour, accidents, and rainstorms that routinely turn the underpass into a perilous flood zone. “The staff report not only ignores the requirements for improvements set by the Board of Supervisors in 1985, but both Greystar and planning staff appear tone deaf to current safety dangers. Drivers and pedestrians on Old Ivy Road routinely experience these dangers, and the report does not say what we all know: our community deserves a safe road before 900 more cars are added to it.”

The Albemarle County Planning Commission will hear this proposal on Tuesday, November 29, beginning at 6 pm, in Lane Auditorium, County Office Building.