Lyle Lovett told us that despite our not being from Texas, Texas would “want [us] anyway.” It seems that Texas has decided to come to us instead — the Austin-based real estate firm LV Collective has purchased the vacant lot next to Yugo Crestline, formally the Standard, with intentions to build an 11-story student housing complex. Residents of Westhaven, a public housing complex, who live directly behind this proposed skyscraper, are demanding the City Council put a stop to this construction. Further, calling this project a student housing project is deeply ironic — the high cost of living at such locations only serves the fraction of students who can afford to live there. City Council needs to halt this development before it promotes a dangerous precedent for student housing and damages a community.
There is only one way to eat an elephant — one bite at a time. The impetus of this issue is that Charlottesville zoning law is currently in disarray. For most of 2025, there was no zoning law at all, meaning City Council exerted little regulation or control over development. While the City Council recently resolved the legal issues that caused this mess, the residue of the disorder still affects how it operates — it has now taken a reduced role in regulating development projects. When LV Collective wanted to propose their new development, they did not go to the City Council due to zoning issues, but rather to the Board of Architectural Review — an unelected body with only the power to delay development, not stop it completely. If this sounds confusing, that is because it was designed to be so. It is a winding mess of regulation, approvals and buck-passing in order to allow widely unpopular projects like the one at hand to slip through the cracks.
When LV Collective presented their plans to the BAR, their ideas for Westhaven were tone-deaf at best to the existing community which they would be entering. Around half of the meeting slides detail how Westhaven will improve through development in the coming years, a strange thing to mention when this development is primarily due to the hard work of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority and not Austin real estate firms. The CRHA highlighted a planned walkway from Westhaven to Main that will feature historical decorations, showcasing their commitment to community orientation. A project that will effectively cut a community off from the heart of Charlottesville cannot reconcile its deep, deep unpopularity via an alley. There is no other word for this but insulting.
In a similar vein of ignorance, LV Collective manipulates Charlottesville's real need for affordable student housing towards its own purpose. No one doubts that student housing is a cause of strife in Charlottesville. It has clear effects on the cost of living for permanent residents, remains too costly for many students and puts pressure on the University to expand outwards. Yet, LV Collective is not only not the answer — it is not even an answer. Building a luxury apartment with rents likely above the average only serves those who can afford it. It does not reduce price pressure for those who cannot afford it. The supply of low-cost housing is effectively fixed by the University. Anything else is increasing the average rent. The power to avoid student housing unaffordability lies with the University and no one else.
The City Council might see it differently. They may look at studies claiming that any construction is beneficial to low-income residents. However, more luxury student housing does not make space for permanent residents of Charlottesville to find more affordable housing, it only takes pressure off the University to provide housing. It does not provide relief to low-income students because, when students who can afford apartments like Yugo Crestline move out of middle-price housing, only students who could already afford those middle-priced rooms can move in. In effect, the target of affordability programs like on-Grounds housing are not these students, and developments like this will not lower prices. Landlords are smart, they know that enrollment is increasing, and one luxury development will not drop demand to a point where they must lower prices.
Similarly, the City Council may see tax revenue from these developments as more important than maintaining a healthy community. It is important to note that, however intriguing this idea may seem, Charlottesville is not a typical city. A hefty chunk of its economy is predicated on a rotating cast of students coming in with their parents’ money. Therefore, a large portion of its housing market is controlled by an entity not dedicated to profit, but to the development of citizen-scholars. The City Council should not strive to make money off of student housing.
The LV Collective proposal aims to address two problems — a disparaged public housing community and a struggling student population. It fails dramatically at both because its actions are based on profit rather than community needs. Housing should not be removed from the community, and it all too often is — Morgan Stanley surely does not understand the needs of University students more than a local proprietor would. In light of this, the City Council has an obligation to put itself back into the conversation over development projects and halt this obstruction. The isolation of Westhaven and the mismanagement of student housing cannot continue. Perhaps an empty lot is not the best use of space, but whoever believes that the oxymoron of a luxury student housing site is the solution is firmly misguided. Perhaps a “cupcakery” would suffice.
Paul Kurtzweil is an opinion columnist who writes about economics, business and housing for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at opinion@cavalierdaily.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Cavalier Daily. Columns represent the views of the authors alone.
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