Nearly two weeks after a Circuit Court ruling threw the state of development in Charlottesville into chaos, the city has clarified what’s next.
According to a city news release from the afternoon of Friday, June 11, the city is once again operating under the 2024 Development Code, but is still not accepting zoning-related applications, and will continue to do so until it receives official written instruction from the court to stop.
The announcement comes after a brief June 30 hearing for an ongoing lawsuit in Charlottesville Circuit Court, during which a judge voided the zoning ordinance City Council adopted in December 2023 and that took effect in February 2024, and instructed it to revert back to the old rules.
The ruling was a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs of the case, a group of city residents who alleged the city did not follow the law in creating the zoning ordinance. The case was set to go to trial, but attorneys with Gentry Locke, the private law firm hired to represent the city, missed a key filing deadline…