A trial over Charlottesville’s zoning ordinance will be heard by a jury, but not until next year.
In January 2024, a group of Charlottesville residents sued the city over the ordinance, which the City Council passed unanimously in December 2023 and which took effect in February 2024. Broadly, it allowed for more residential density throughout the city, something known as “upzoning.” Officials and some community members hoped that the new ordinance would open up more affordable housing opportunities for people of various economic statuses.
The suit alleges that the city did not follow the law when it passed its Comprehensive Plan in November 2021, specifically that it only sent the transportation chapter, and not the entire plan, to the Virginia Department of Transportation, and therefore the plan is void. If the Comprehensive Plan is void, the plaintiffs argue, so is the zoning ordinance based off of it.
The case was headed for trial when, on June 30, 2025, Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell issued a default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs — attorneys with Gentry Locke, the law firm the city hired to handle the case, missed a filing deadline…