Charlottesville City Planners approve Starr Hill Vision Plan

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Charlottesville is moving toward a new look for an historic community.

Charlottesville City Planners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the Starr Hill Vision Plan. The vote doesn’t give any money, nor does it start construction – those things would come later. But the sign-off is the first step toward getting it into the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

“We will create a neighborhood identity rooted in African-American presence and prosperity with real opportunities for the Black community to foster ownership of property, commerce, and culture,” said Yolunda Harrell of the New Hill Development Corporation.

The plan Harrell presented is designed to create opportunities for Black-owned businesses and expand ownership access.

“If they definitely want to have ownership opportunities, we wanted to make sure that exists,” she said. “Not just at the high level, but at the level that allows more people to participate in owning opportunities here in Charlottesville.”

New Hill Development Corp. estimates between 10 and 46 majority affordable housing units would be built on Brown Street. Harrell says the plan is about more than just housing or jobs, it’s also about creating spaces and connecting people.

“One of the things that we tried to do is to look at centering, kind of creating a public square that centers the Jefferson school, but then bringing that square across the street over to the Downtown Mall.”

Councilmember Lloyd Snook asked about ways to create more spaces for people to gather and ways to beautify them.

“[There are] a lot of walls there that could be mural spaces, for example,” he said.

Harrell responded, “Being able to use local artists, young, up-and-coming artists, but just a way to really be able to tell the history, tell the story, and really just showcase the legacy.”
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