Dive Brief:

• Charlottesville, Virginia, paused all zoning application approvals last month after a state judge voided the zoning ordinance that took effect in 2024. 
• The ordinance, which the City Council unanimously adopted in December 2023, eliminated single-family zoning and parking space requirements at new developments, among other measures.
• The new code was intended to create more housing density and help address the city’s housing affordability crisis, said Brian Pinkston, Charlottesville’s vice mayor, in an email.

Dive Insight:

In 2023, Charlottesville joined a growing number of U.S. cities and states, including Maine, Montana, Colorado and Massachusetts, in reforming its zoning code to allow greater housing density, a move designed to address the high cost of renting and buying a home. Minneapolis; Gainesville, Florida; and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have all eliminated single family zoning, allowing multifamily housing citywide. 

Home to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville attracts a large number of students and professionals, Pinkston said. But until 2024, the city had “very restrictive zoning in terms of what could be built,” he said. 

Charlottesville’s ordinance updated the city’s zoning map, rolled back regulations requiring a certain number of parking spaces in housing developments and allowed duplexes to be built throughout the city — effectively eliminating single-family zoning. The changes made it easier to build housing and add housing density throughout the city, Pinkston said. 

“We see it as a tool in addressing the housing affordability crisis,” he said. 

In some states and cities, those reforms have received pushback, including lawsuits. Six Colorado cities sued the state over a pair of laws that required communities to ease their local land-use regulations to allow for more housing construction, for example. 

A group of residents sued Charlottesville shortly after it passed its ordinance, arguing that the city did not follow the proper process before adopting it, the city stated on its website. 

A Charlottesville Circuit Court judge granted a default judgement in the case on June 30 after the city’s outside counsel failed to respond to the plaintiff’s amended complaint by a required deadline. That voided the 2024 zoning ordinance, which had replaced the old one, leaving the city without a zoning code in place, the city stated. 

As a result, the city placed all zoning-related applications on hold, affecting new construction, additions, site modifications and changes in land use, the city stated on July 11. It continued processing building permit applications such as trade and fire permits. 

The city is in talks with the residents and their counsel to settle the case. If needed, it will ask the court to reconsider or will file an appeal, the city stated. 

While the city’s legal counsel attempts to resolve the issue, the City Council is also working to re-adopt the 2024 zoning code. Last week, it passed a resolution to refer the amended code to the city’s Planning Commission for review and recommendations. According to the resolution, the commission is required to hold a public hearing and report its findings and recommendations to the City Council within 100 days after its next meeting.