Charlottesville's Planning Commission and the City Council currently are considering the possibility of adding land behind the Corner, between 14th Street and Rugby Road, to the designated historic district called the Venable Neighborhood.
"The City is wrestling with how to integrate a historic district with the higher-density district adjacent to the University," Mayor David Brown said.
City Council will vote next month on whether to include the area in the protected Venable Neighborhood.
The proposed change would place limitations on what property owners could do with their land. The City would gain design control by requiring an approval from the City Board of Architectural Review, Brown said.
Designating areas of the City as historic districts adds obstacles to developing them because developers must follow a process of appealing to the Council to have the right to tear down buildings.
Consequently, some potential investors are increasingly hesitant due to the uncertainty of whether or not they will be allowed to tear down the existing buildings, Brown said.
Although passing the ordinance may deter some investments, the City's priority is to avoid a complete loss of historical value by widespread urbanization, Brown said.
Daniel Veliky, Operating Manager of Veliky LC properties, said he does not support the possibility of the zoning changes. Veliky LC has already taken down buildings in order to build The V, a four-story apartment building on 15th Street, as the ordinance has not yet been passed.
"I'm disappointed that the City would consider this a national historic area because they just passed an ordinance to increase the zoning density and now this reduces the zoning to less than it was before," Veliky said. "The City gave and now it's taking away."
Most of the buildings are getting old and need to be removed to make way for better structures, Veliky said. He said he believes many of the City's small, single family homes are not historic but need replacement.
The Planning Commission and City Council are trying to work out the details of the zoning near the Corner in order to allow the Board of Architectural Review to oversee the design and control of future development.
According to Vice Mayor Kevin Lynch, Council must determine the guidelines in place for the entire district and then the boundaries of the district itself.
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