Population data (HT: Business Pundit)Charlottesville (“and surrounding area”) is #90Charlottesville is the 39th “Smartest Place to Live” per Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.North Pointe saga continues. As reported by Cville Tomorrow. My reports say that those in favor of the project moving forward far outnumbered those opposed. The forthcoming podcast will prove enlightening.Google Trends – an extraordinary means by which to peer inside the psyche of searchers. See: Housing BubblePrint -vs- Web -vs- BloggingAn index of SprawlZillow shows a little bit more of its hand – where will they go from here?Finally, a blast from the past:Nevertheless, technology alone isn’t the solution to the arcane world of real estate. “The business of working with realtors is complex,” said Barker. “This is a very fragmented business and realtors have lots of needs and they are expensive to service.”Plus, it is an industry that is very sensitive to relationships and to traditions and practices such as various MLS rules that are dissimilar from market to market.
Browsing Category Growth
Locked Out
Tying into the Jane Jacobs story is the Free Enterprise Forum’s “Locked Out” report, released yesterday. From their press release: The “Locked Out†report finds that just 16% of Albemarle homes are available to families earning median income. The report also finds Albemarle County has the largest planning department staff, the largest comprehensive plan and the longest approval time for subdivisions … the “Locked Out†report seeks to identify existing regulatory barriers and encourage an open cost/benefit analysis between regulation and affordability. The report includes an analysis of new urbanist design regulations, growth boundaries and their impact on land use patterns. So much to read … CvilleTomorrow reports as well.
Urban Planning … gone wrong?
On the heels of Jane Jacobs’, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, comes this excellent commentary from Leonard Gilroy who says simply that we have it all wrong when it comes to urban planning. But if they go back and reread “Death and Life,” they’ll find Jacobs rightly asking, “How is bigger administration, with labyrinths nobody can comprehend or navigate, an improvement over crazy-quilt township and suburban governments?”She went on to ridicule the idea of regionalism as “escapism from intellectual helplessness” predicated on the delusion that the problems planners are unable to solve at the local level will somehow be more easily addressed on a larger-scale, concluding that “no other expertise can substitute for locality knowledge in planning.”Politicians and planners would do well to commemorate Jacobs by revisiting her work. Despite the best efforts of well-intentioned planners, you can’t “create” a vibrant city or neighborhood. The best cities and neighborhoods just happen, and the best thing we can do is to step out of the way of innovators and entrepreneurs.Is the Neighborhood Model really where we want to go?
Too much retail in CharlAlbemarle?
SELC thinks so. The 19 page PDF makes for fairly interesting reading. When I finish it, I’ll post more. With soaring gas prices, maybe that trip to Short Pump won’t be so appealing and staying home to shop will be more economical.What do you think?
How will fuel prices affect development?
In many, many ways. My prediction is that telecommuting and higher-density developments will become much more prominent in the next five to ten years, due the forces of economics and necessity.QandO reports this morning that high fuel prices are here to stay.Counties are feeling the effects on their developments.PropertyGrunt has an excellent report on the effect of ChIndia on the real estate market, begun poignantly with a quote by Napoleon:“China is a sleeping giant. Let her lie and sleep, for when she awakens she will astonish the world.â€zFor some perspective on gas prices, check out this graphic -Courtesy of the WSJ.Finally, for a related (albeit time-consuming) read, check out this discussion on Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances and unintended consequences.Bacon’s Rebellion is up.
5th Street/Avon Road coming soon?
If only … A major feature of the project will be a developer-funded public road that will link Fifth Street and Avon Street Extended, a connection that the County is eager to see—especially now that the massive Biscuit Run development has County drivers fretting about increased traffic in the area.It seems that the only time a new road has a chance of being built, it comes from private money. Hopefully the County will ensure that this is a functional road, with bike paths, etc. This seems to be the type of development that we want – anything to help alleviate the congestion on the 29 North Corridor. More information on this and other transportation projects can be found at cvilletomorrow’s excellent Transportation Matrix.Note that this story is from the C-Ville’s new website. Quite nifty. Now they appear to have permalinks, which will make linking to their stories that much better; it’s a shame that their links are so complex.
Connected communities
As our region continues to grow, each area has its own perspective on how to handle growth – Orange County – Resident, after resident, after resident lined up to speak in strong disapproval to the proposed Annandale development. The 244 acre site would sit just outside of Gordonsville and house nearly 500 single family homes for people ages 55 and up. Some residents felt this many homes could destroy the small town feel.Nelson County – In addressing Nellysford, Rue said there could be three routes taken to complete the plan. They include long-term transportation and business growth, a focus of safety issues on Virginia 151 or a plan that looks at safety as well as business growth.Louisa County: questions are raised regarding the mixed-use implementation as they revise their Comprehensive Plan – The suggested changes would define “very low density residential development†as one dwelling unit per acre and “low density residential development†as up to two dwelling units per acre. High density residential development would be defined as more than six units per acre…. (and one person remarked) “If [one house per acre] is very low density,†she said, “I don’t know what life is going to be like around here.â€What if a rural county wants to maintain its rural character? And one of my favorites comes from Trish, who laments the changing landscape of the CharlAlbemarle area – Why do we have to completely strip the land to build anything?… The land-use decisions in Louisa will impact the real estate market in CharlAlbemarle – if more people are able to comfortably buy, live and work in Louisa, perhaps fewer people will move to CharlAlbemarle.