Third-year College student Laura Dozier woke up at 8 a.m. on the Friday before Fall Break not to leave town, but to wait in line. Sleeping bag and snack food in hand, Dozier planned to spend the night on the sidewalk in front of the Wade Apartments office in line with about 50 other students to sign a lease.
The University community has seen students camp out for basketball tickets and the chance to be hypnotized by Tom DeLuca, but these campers were after something else xj- four bedrooms, hardwood floors, a dishwasher, a deck, a spacious living room, and a short walk to Grounds, all for around $400 a month.
For the last few years, many students wanting apartments in the University area have had to spend the night in front of leasing offices to make sure they get the building of their choice. Property management companies such as Management Services Corporation and Wade Apartments open their doors for lease-signing on a morning in October, and students fight to get the most popular apartments before the companies run out.
Dozier said she and her friends initially tried to sign a lease for MSC's new Wertland Apartments, which were built in 1999. But when they got to the office the night before the leases became available, around 100 people already were lined up along the sidewalk. After talking to the students in line, they realized that the apartments they wanted would be gone by the time their turn came to sign a lease.
So Dozier decided to try for Wade Apartments' 13th and John streets apartments, another building known for large, well-kept rooms. She said she and her friends got in line about 24 hours before the office opened, and eventually were able to secure a four-bedroom apartment.
"We wouldn't have been able to live there if we hadn't waited in line," she said.
Others weren't so lucky. Third-year College student Kate Allen said she waited in line all night at MSC, only to be turned away the next morning because the apartment building she wanted had filled up. So Allen camped out again in front of Wade the next night, and was able to get an apartment at 13th and John.
Allen said one of the reasons students are willing to wait hours in line is to live in a convenient location. While there are always places available to rent well into the spring semester, a lot of students want to live in apartment buildings close to Grounds, the Corner and Rugby Road.
But the City of Charlottesville zones much of this area for single-family housing, meaning that few large apartment buildings are allowed. This combined with a growing student population makes the competition to get housing in the Rugby Road/14th Street area very steep.
But the city's Planning Commission has been looking into changing some of the neighborhoods into high-density residential areas. This means the city would allow developers to build apartment buildings with 50 units per acre instead of 22 units per acre, which is the current zoned amount for most areas with apartment buildings such as Wertland Street, said Wade Apts. General Manager, Wade Tremblay, who is working with the planning commission.
City Council already has approved the "concept" of increasing the density of the Wertland Street and Brandon Avenue neighborhoods, which means it has not made any detailed plans. Council is now also exploring increasing the density of segments of the Venable and Jefferson Park Avenue neighborhoods.
"The University's enrollment has been growing by 200 students a year, and that doesn't include new faculty and staff," Tremblay said.
The University provides housing for about 35 percent of students and is not planning to build new upper-class residence halls in the near future, said James Tolbort, director of Neighborhood Development Services, a group that makes recommendations to the City's Planning Commission.
"There is a market for nice apartments near Grounds," Tolbort said. The new zoning laws would enable developers to replace older houses that are not very well maintained with modern apartments, he said.
The plans to urbanize the area around the University, though, may not be supported by everyone.
Tremblay said he expects that some of the private homeowners in the JPA area may not welcome more apartment buildings. He said that about 6 percent of residents in the area are homeowners. He also expects debate concerning the neighborhoods between Gordon and Grady avenues, where a mixture of students and homeowners live.
Some students also have expressed appreciation for the residential atmosphere of the University area.
"I like how [the Venable/Rugby area] looks like a neighborhood," Allen said.
Another problem higher density zones may present is the lack of convenient parking. In most zones, a four-bedroom apartment must have four parking spaces. But in the new high-density zones, developers only will have to provide one parking spot per apartment.
"We'd like to de-emphasize automobiles at the University," Tremblay said. He said in the future, students may have to accept that they cannot park right next to their front doors. But most new apartments will be built close to Grounds, so students will not need cars, he said.
Tolbert said final plans for new zones should be made by this summer.
As the area around the University becomes more urbanized, it may not be as pretty, but Tremblay said housing options should improve. But he said that does not necessarily mean the end of students camping out at leasing offices.
He said some particular locations, like the 13th and John Apartments, may always be in high demand, no matter how many alternative locations are developed.
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