Forest Lakes Development-Call To Action

Sponsored by: Forest Lakes Properties

The proposal to expand the county’s growth area to include a number of parcels directly across Route 29 from the Ashwood Boulevard entrance to Forest Lakes is back on the table – and is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow by the Board of Supervisors. 

You can express your opinion on this idea by emailing the Supervisors today at bos@albemarle.org 

This designation would be the first step toward enabling new development potentially equivalent to the size and density of Hollymead Town Center, with a big box store and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial development and possibly hundreds of new residential units too – and all the traffic that would accompany it.  The single entrance for this entire project would be at Ashwood Boulevard.

The Forest Lakes Board has testified in opposition to this idea on multiple occasions, and recently nearly over 100 residents participated in a petition to oppose this plan.  We have said that (1) the focus needs to be on fixing traffic problems not adding new ones, (2) road infrastructure (in particular parallel roads to east of Rt. 29 – an extension of Berkmar Drive over the river and north to Hollymead Town Center) need to be in place first before any new development, (3) it’s unnecessary given how many other large developments are already in the pipeline, (4) Ashwood is already an overcrowded and unsafe intersection, and many other points.

 The elected County Supervisor for our area (though he lives in Key West) Ken Boyd withdrew the proposal citing our opposition, stating that “because I was elected to represent Rivanna (District) I’m going to do what the people said.”  But Mr. Boyd has flip-flopped and at the very next meeting, when we were not in attendance to help ensure accountability, he resurrected the proposal and now wants to push it through at the 11^th hour.   He cites that additional steps and hurdles would still be in place before a development is built – and that we can provide input then (despite that we have already provided clear input on it).  And that by giving this approval/designation to the developer now he will somehow perversely be more likely to contribute funds toward building the infrastructure (though there are no expectations, conditions, understandings, commitments or dollars on the table at this point, and the developer has a long history of resisting doing anything not strictly required of him).  Finally, he indicates that the developer has apparently threatened to do some development there “by right” (though what he could do in its current rural area designation would be quite limited – and would be subject to additional approvals) – and therefore the County should open the door for him to do something much larger and denser but that might be more comprehensively designed (we don’t quite follow it either).

We are sorry to report that your voices were not fully heard last time, and that you need again to express your views on this proposal – today.

Sponsored by: Forest Lakes Properties