In a 4-1 vote on Sept. 2, the Charlottesville City Council upheld the Board of Architectural Review’s decision to preserve the 0.4-acre property on the corner of Wertland Street and 13th Street NW. The Council’s vote was in response to an appeal from developers who had sought to demolish the home in order to construct a multi-story apartment complex. This complex, which would create up to 300 new bedrooms for University students, was pitched as a way to align with the city’s goals of increasing housing under the 2021 Comprehensive Plan. Yet despite these goals, the property’s historical background ultimately took precedence — the two-bedroom house originally belonged to William Wertenbaker, who was appointed by Thomas Jefferson to serve as the school’s second-ever librarian in 1826. Keeping this small historic house unfortunately means fewer opportunities to expand student housing in the area.
The debate over this property highlights a larger tension regarding how Charlottesville should reconcile its dual commitments to expanding housing supply and preserving the city’s historic character. The city is facing a housing shortage, and even though this house is part of the Wertland Street Historic District, it offers little functional use, and its preservation undermines the housing priorities that the city is trying to advance. If the city wants to take its own housing plan seriously, it needs to allow scarce, centrally located land like this to be used efficiently. In other words, the usefulness of adding hundreds of units of off-Grounds housing outweighs the historical significance of keeping this property. Moving forward, Charlottesville should prioritize housing over preservation when the two conflict, as doing so is the only way to meet the city’s urgent needs.
Although adding housing for 200 to 300 students may seem insignificant in comparison to the city’s broader housing needs, it would still be a step in the right direction towards addressing the overall housing crisis. University students often favor location above other factors in their housing search, and as such, this project would have also helped ease competition in nearby neighborhoods. The University’s own housing analysis shows that many upperclassmen are funneled into formerly family-oriented neighborhoods, crowding out long-term residents. This shows that the lack of student housing creates direct pressure on surrounding neighborhoods, and preserving a two-bedroom house on a 0.4-acre parcel at the expense of 200 to 300 beds ignores this reality…