Yesterday, the Albemarle County
Development Review Process Task Force
received a report on their recent community survey of citizens, members of the development community and County staff to collect input related to possible improvements in the county’s rezoning and special use permit processes. [Links:
survey questions
/
task force background
]
While not a scientific survey, it did generate a fairly good number of responses for the brief period the survey was administered (351 citizen submissions, 30 developer submissions, and 23 staff submissions). On the
County’s website
you can download an executive summary as well as the verbatim comments by each constituent group. You can see some of the themes below.
DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
When asked if the current review process works adequately, the development community’s responses included the following themes: Too Time Consuming; Conflicting Goals and Priorities; Lack of Clear/Consistent Guidelines; Inappropriate Citizen Involvement; Too Much Detail Required at Early Stages.
CITIZENS
When asked if the current review process allows for adequate citizen involvement, those citizens that responded “No” offered comments with the following themes: Inadequate Public Comment Opportunities; Intimidating/Complex Process; Developers Appear to Have an Advantage; Insufficient Information on Website; Need Better Visuals/Project Materials; Inadequate Notification.
The task force will meet again in November to continue their review of the survey feedback as they finalize their recommendations for the Board of Supervisors.
Brian Wheeler
