Height is OK.
Below are two things, first a transcript of public comment made to City Council about building height and support for the 2117 Ivy project. The second is quick notes made during a City Council work session on zoning. Please check out both!
Comments made at 20 November 2023 City Council meeting:
Hello City Council, Staff, and fellow residents,
First, I want to reiterate a point from the Planning Commission meeting last week, supporting the 2117 Ivy apartment project and buildings like it. Charlottesville needs housing, and people are ready for big steps like this apartment complex. We can’t be afraid of height. There is no objective reason why a shorter entrance corridor to a city is better, it’s just what we’re used to here. A slow slide into less dense areas at the edge of town is how sprawl gets started. There are plenty of tall buildings in Charlottesville already and tall buildings that are beautiful everywhere.
Since Charlottesville is land-constrained, we have to rely on infill and going up to create new opportunities for residents. I have a list and photo library of the tall buildings in Charlottesville that I will send over so that it’s clear that tall buildings are not an anomaly here or something to see as worse by default than a shorter building. From this informal survey, there are 33 buildings in the city that are 5 stories or taller, and more than half of them are 7 stories or taller. The majority of them have been built in the last decade and a half. Tall buildings are all over the city, and barely raise eyebrows once built.
Here are some examples:
Apex Clean Energy building - mass timber construction. 7 stories.
Crescent Hall - 8 stories
Code Building - 9 stories
Monticello Hotel - 10 stories, and pretty!
Wells Fargo Building - 8 stories
1800 JPA - 9 stories
Next, as it is Thanksgiving week, I want to express my gratitude that the strip of sidewalk on East High Street in front of the AT&T building is going in, and from the look of it today, nearly complete. Forcing people to trudge through the lawn or use their wheelchair in the street was tough, and I’m glad it will be safer now. I want to continue to urge further development of improvements like this throughout the city, there are many opportunities for sidewalks and raised crosswalks, we must keep going to make access safer for pedestrians, wheelchair users, parents with strollers, generally more centered around people. Providing opportunities for people to live in and get around the city in a more environmentally friendly manner, more comfortably, efficiently, and safely without needing a car is what will make Charlottesville more human-scaled, not shorter buildings.
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Google folder with tall buildings of Charlottesville photo database found HERE.
Email sent to Council & Planning Commission during 29 November 2023 Council Work Session:
I'd also like to add a few comments based on the current discussion during the work session tonight.
There is no way to predict or control everything that will happen, and that's ok.
Size and design and grace are independent factors. Large buildings can be lovely, small buildings can be ugly. Limited size and requiring setbacks does not necessarily make beautiful architecture, freedom to design makes beautiful architecture.
For example, see below [and thread here]: Source
It is fundamentally impossible to say that you want to give freedom to architects to make things pretty instead of cramming people into places, but then require stepbacks, setbacks, massing breaks, and other design limitations. Those requirements are not design freedom. Providing a lot of housing and space for people is not mutually exclusive to good design. Again, large buildings can be lovely. I think everyone would probably agree that the Chrysler building is more of an attractive architectural feat than a standard strip mall or average local family home.
The West Village has no setback, but does have street trees, and is some of the most attractive real estate in the world.
Historic neighborhoods in Providence, RI are full of charm, built to the edge, very dense, and have no setbacks.
