The next 12 months are going to be marked by extreme economic crisis and political instability. We need to put forward visions of a better world and make them as material and reproducible as possible, because we are about to enter an period of massive social rearrangement and experimentation

I think what I want is at least for the next opposition candidate for president to point at stuff like this and go "under my administration we'll get to the bottom of what's going on here."

Absolutely...i tried (maybe clumsily) to make this point in public comment - glad this is happening, but it's a missed opportunity for a more ambitious, visionary realization of the comp plan there.

(appendix 1: the summary of the Sieg Property proposed rezoning plan: www.albemarle.org/home/showdoc...)

Anyway - I'm going to go to the planning commission meeting tonight and speak at public comment, and then I'm going to go over to Birdhouse for the Antifascist sing-along. I'd love to have some company at either or both - if you feel so moved, let me know. bsky.app/profile/adel...

A "comprehensive plan," if you will.

I think there's a broader point being demonstrated here - the county's future land use map for this area shows basically no transformative vision, just plodding defense of the status quo. The status quo isn't working! So this development, while good, could have been part of a larger county vision.

I plan to go to the PC meeting tonight to speak in favor of this development. That's because I believe we need to build more housing in the county, period. Especially large mixed-use developments, with jobs and homes right next to each other.

Previous incarnations of this proposed rezoning have asked for up to 1,200 units; at one time, the possible maximum (not requested by the developer) was 2,000 units. The applicant deferred back in September after it looked like the 1,200 home plan wouldn't fly, in part b/c of critical slope issues.

a ceo goes to shake hands with Park Chan-wook but feels the telltale stiffness of ring mail beneath the director's sleeve....

just musing for right now, might turn this into something more substantial in the future...but i think it's interesting that an overall downwards-trending average flattens out a little when you remove the rural area (500 avg 1975-2008, then 441 avg 2009-present).

removing the rural area from the zoning categories here shows a slightly different picture - it's not just a decline in building, it's a fairly consistent level of building with a big gap following the great recession, a return to norm up to 2020, then a recent jagged decline.

also, in case you can't tell from the orange in the above chart - from 1975 to 2008, total units averaged ~800/year; from 2009 to present, total units averaged ~530/year. but that 1975-2008 higher average was underpinned by development in the rural area.

if i turn this into a blog post i will be more methodical about color-coding the zoning categories here. but another thing i saw, zooming out: 2016 and 2025 are the two lowest-unit years in the last 50 years for Albemarle County.