The University, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County each have big plans for growth over the next decade and are working together to avoid stepping on each other's toes while expanding.
Representatives from the three entities spoke yesterday in a public meeting to describe and discuss all building projects in the near future.
Over the course of the next decade, "the amount of change and the amount of growth [within the University] is going to be extraordinary," said Leonard W. Sandridge, University executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Much of the expansion can be attributed to anticipated growth in student enrollment, Sandridge said.
The key growth precincts include North Grounds, the Arts precinct, the Jefferson Park Avenue and McCormick Road area as well as the Medical Center.
Included among the plans are a 15,000 seat arena and "multipurpose facilty," a 1,200 car parking garage on Ivy Road and Emmet Street, a medical research building, and a music performance space and studio arts building near Carr's Hill.
The University Hospital will increase in size by 100,000 square feet by 2006.
Additionally, the South Lawn area will be completely updated, with major renovations to Cocke and Rouss Hall and the construction of a new academic building across JPA to replace New Cabell Hall, which will be demolished. The new academic building will be linked to the Lawn by a pedestrian crosswalk.
Sandridge said the plans for expansion will depend mostly on the University's needs in the upcoming years.
"Our Master plan is totally consistent with the city's" plans, he added.
City spokesman Jim Tolbert cited traffic concerns as one of the main developmental issues facing the community.
"We're not building a lot of roads - we tend to look at transportation problems in other ways," Tolbert said.
For example, Tolbert said the City will abandon its outdated 1970s zoning ordinances in favor of "mixed-use environments."
Under the City's new plans, new housing, retail stores and commercial businesses would be constructed in the same area, rather than grouped separately as they are now.
Tolbert said he has been pleased with the way the county and city have worked together on development projects, particularly over the past three years.
"We are a very dynamic community," County spokesman Wayne Cilimberg said.
Cilimberg said he feels "a true sense of the same goal here," between the University, city and county.
Expansion plans can be completed "in a way that maintains this unity," he said.
Among the county's largest plans is the addition of roads parallel to Route 29 "that would allow local traffic to move off of 29 rather than along it," Cilimberg added.
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