With a change in the University's housing policy guaranteeing space for rising-second year students slated to go into effect next year, as well as a plethora of new off-Grounds apartments popping up around the City, children of students graduating today will enter the University to find the local housing dynamic transformed.
According to a new University housing policy, rising second-year students will now be guaranteed on-Grounds housing if they apply for housing by a November deadline. Upperclassmen who wish to remain in their current assignment will be allowed to do so.
Chief Housing Officer Mark S. Doherty said the decision was made to codify the longstanding ability of the University Housing Office to provide beds for all students who apply in order to relieve pressure on first years concerned about the infamous fall lease signing frenzy.
"I know over the years there's been some anxiety about the dates of when students would know of an on-Grounds offer," Doherty said. "I think what we're doing here is trying to provide earlier information to students and parents."
Doherty said that, based on past precedents, he does not anticipate that there will be any vast increase in demand for on-Grounds spaces because of the new guarantee.
"For many years the demand has been very stable at 50 percent, or slightly more than half the first-year class applying for housing, and that's remained stable even as our ability to make offers has accelerated," he said.
Doherty added that this past year all students who were placed on the initial waiting list for housing received an offer by the beginning of March.
Even with demand remaining relatively stagnant, however, the University still is planning to increase the on-Grounds housing stock for upperclassmen.
Doherty said the "leading site" for new upperclassmen housing is presently the area surrounding the new Emmet/Ivy Parking Garage.
Plans also are moving ahead more quickly for replacement of the deteriorating 1960s Alderman Road dormitories, which University officials have said do not pose a safety risk to current occupants.
"We hope to see that begin within the next two years," Doherty said of the process, which likely will take well over a decade to be completed. "The cadence would be to build the first increment [of new dorms], demolish the first increment [of the old dorms], so that as we go through the entire project we would not lose the first-year bed spaces that we currently have."
Luxurious Living
Just as the University is working to update its housing stock with the replacement of Alderman Road dorms, the off-Grounds market is experiencing a boom of sorts with new construction of so-called "luxury" student apartments.
Sterling University Place, located beyond Jefferson Park Avenue in Albemarle County, is one of two new resort-style apartment complexes that have opened over the past year.
With amenities like swimming pools, fitness facilities and computer labs, the new communities include shuttles to Grounds to compensate for their distance.
Sterling features 144 different apartments with individually leased bedrooms, said Matt Johnson, community manager at Sterling University Place.
At present, the complex is around 99 to 100 percent full and is about 70 percent pre-leased for the upcoming school year, Johnson said.
"I think we've been able to provide a new style or a new option for the students," he said. "We have a lot of amenities to keep [students] here and keep them happy there."
A leasing manager from Eagle's Landing, a community similar to Sterling, said she was not allowed to comment on vacancies at the recently constructed complex.
Closer to Central Grounds on 14th Street, Woodard Properties opened its new Camden Plaza building late last fall after numerous construction delays.
The building is 60 percent occupied at present and is 89 percent pre-leased for the upcoming school year, Woodard Properties Property Manager Joy Waring said.
Woodard is "thrilled" about the number of leases signed for next year, Waring added.
Waring said she believes students are willing to pay higher rents for more amenities and proximity to Grounds.
"I think if they're offered more, they'll accept it and pay for it," she said.
Woodard is also planning to begin construction on a club house-like "pavilion" for its residents to gather, relax and study in, Waring said.
While Management Services Corporation is finishing up work on a club house of its own near Preston Avenue, and both Sterling and Eagle's Landing feature massive club house buildings, Waring said the new pavilion is not an attempt to compete with other property managers.
"This was sort of in the planning for five years," Waring said. "It's just come to now sort of an opportune time for us to do it."
Leasing ABCs
With the many new and expensive, off-Grounds options on tap, incoming Student Council President Noah Sullivan said he hopes Council's new off-Grounds housing office will guide students in making wiser living decisions.
Council recently approved the decision for the off-Grounds housing office to be located in Newcomb Hall and hopes to have it up and running for the coming school year, Sullivan said.
The new office will serve to educate students on the often complicated leasing process and inform students on issues unique to off-Grounds living situations, he said.
Sullivan added that discussions also have been taking place with local property managers surrounding the potential for the creation of a database of available rental properties to be made available for apartment-hunting students through the office.
"We feel like that when students aren't informed about the housing situation they tend to sign leases long before they should even be signing leases," he said
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