Charlottesville rewrote its zoning code to get more housing built. Builders are using it, but not in the way many residents hoped.
Charlottesville Tomorrow reported that since the new ordinance took effect in February 2024, plans for luxury student housing have outpaced other residential projects, especially low-cost housing. Two big student projects have been approved in historically Black neighborhoods: LV Collective's building on West Main Street in 10th and Page, and Landmark Properties' The Mark in Fifeville.
The numbers
As of Sept. 8, 2026, there were 1,072 city-subsidized affordable units in the construction pipeline, according to a city housing report cited by Charlottesville Tomorrow. Most are part of large projects led by Piedmont Housing Alliance and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
By comparison, more than 1,400 units of student housing, with room for at least 4,400 students, are in the city's pipeline. The University of Virginia is building 235 of those units, about 780 beds. Private, for-profit developers are building most of the rest.
The West Main project
LV Collective, based in Austin, Texas, plans 182 units of luxury student housing at 835, 843 and 847 West Main St., Charlottesville Tomorrow reported. The site is now a parking lot between a 7-story student building, the railroad tracks and Westhaven, the city's oldest and largest public housing community.
The company first wanted 11 stories. After pushback from the Board of Architectural Review and the neighborhood, the plan is now 8 stories, stepping down to 6 on the side facing Westhaven. The building will have about 520 bedrooms, 49 parking spaces, a cafe and a fitness center.
Why developers say student housing wins
At a Sept. 17 community meeting, LV Collective Vice President Brittani Sanders laid out the math. Projects like this are funded about 60% by bank loans and 40% by equity investors, she said. Cutting the height meant fewer units and lower profit.
"If you can't do the height to get the money, the bank doesn't like that, private equity doesn't like that," Sanders said, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow. "Land value drives what you can build on the site."
A 2023 study by RKG Associates for the city found that the cost of construction for buildings over five stories had reached the point where even student rental housing "currently is not financially feasible without some mitigating cost offset (e.g., lower land prices)."
The fee gap
Charlottesville's inclusionary zoning rule requires projects with 10 or more units to either set aside 10% of units for households at or below 60% of area median income, or pay a fee into the city's Affordable Housing Fund.
Student housing, defined as by-the-bed rentals within a half-mile of UVA's Central Grounds, pays about half the regular fee. City Councilor Michael Payne said LV Collective will pay about $4 million instead of $8 million. He wants council to fix that and narrow the half-mile radius, which takes in most of 10th and Page and much of Fifeville. So far, he hasn't had a majority.
LV Collective also plans to put $400,000 toward a neighborhood stabilization fund, Sanders said. Residents called that too little.
Less public input
Under the old code, a project this size would have needed a special-use permit, with two public hearings before City Council voted. That's no longer the case. UCLA urban planning professor Minjee Kim told Charlottesville Tomorrow the city may have "overcorrected." "Deregulation isn't always the best," she said.
James Bryant, who has lived in 10th and Page for 72 years, told the Sept. 17 meeting he is "overwrought with grief at all of this building going on around us."
Why it matters for contractors
Charlottesville is a clear case of how by-right zoning changes the work that gets built. With fewer hearings, projects can move faster, but builders follow the numbers. Here, the numbers favor large student buildings near UVA.
That means steady work on mid-rise construction for contractors in the region, with thousands of student beds in the pipeline. It also means risk. Council members are talking about changing the student housing fee and the half-mile boundary, and some want neighborhoods to get more say. Any of those changes could slow or reshape future projects.
Builders also should note the cost warnings in the city's own study. Above five stories, even the most profitable housing type struggles without cheaper land. That's a reminder that construction costs, not just zoning, decide what gets built.