The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia projects that more than 137,000 people will call Albemarle County home by 2040, or about 18,000 more than their estimate for July 2026.
“Now is the time for managing that growth through activity center plans and multimodal transportation plans,” said Tonya Swartzendruber, a planning manager in Albemarle.
Since the late 1970s, the county has operated under a growth management policy that directs growth to about five percent of Albemarle’s 726 square miles. Last October, the Board of Supervisors adopted an updated Comprehensive Plan called AC44 that kept the boundaries in place and suggested new ways to encourage increased density…