Albemarle County requests $1 million dollar grant for Southwood Redevelopment The entrance sign at Southwood Mobile Home Park, which is being redeveloped into standalone homes for residents by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. (Source: WVIR) By CJ Paschall | April 22, 2021 at 8:52 PM EDT - Updated April 22 at 8:52 PM
ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Albemarle County is seeking funding to help develop the first phase of Habitat for Humanityâs Southwood Redevelopment.
After years of planning, physical work is now progressing on the first phase of the Southwood Redevelopment. Albemarle County is seeking funding to in the form of a $1 million Community Development Block Grant.
Albemarle Countyâs Board of Supervisors and Planning Commissioners want to do more for affordable housing.
The county is in the process of updating its affordable housing policy, which originally was implemented in 2004 and was tweaked during the 2015 Comprehensive Plan update.
The two bodies met earlier this week to discuss the draft updated affordable housing policy, which contains objectives aimed at increasing the overall housing supply; increasing the supply of affordable and workforce housing; preservation of existing housing and communities; community engagement; fair housing and community equity; homelessness and special populations; and sustainable communities. Each objective contains multiple strategies.
Planning Commissioner Karen Firehock said she was concerned about the countyâs willingness to approve higher density, affordable developments in the urban ring around Charlottesville.