SOMEONE has a sense of irony. The Wednesday before last, The Cavalier Daily ran two otherwise serious articles side-by-side. One was "City Council votes to limit building heights downtown," whose title is self-explanatory. The other was "Census shows increase in homeless population," which detailed how rising housing costs are pushing Charlottesville natives out of their homes and onto the streets. The irony is that homelessness is the ultimate result of the anti-development, so-called progressive policies of the radical leftists running Charlottesville. Forbes magazine recently ranked Charlottesville 12th on its list of best places for business and that might be true for now, but with the policies currently being instituted, don't expect that top ranking to last.
Two weeks ago the Charlottesville City Planning Commission voted 5 to 1 to restrict the height of Downtown buildings to 70 feet, or five stories. The Commission, which is appointed by the unanimously Democratic City Council, offered a plethora of rationalizations for the policy ranging from "creating a dynamic street life" to "preserving the special historic character of the area." I'm not quite sure what building height has to do with street life, but Downtown Development Committee member Kay Slaughter assures residents that "this was not in any sense an arbitrary decision."
She's right. The Commission is sending two clear messages with this new policy. First, it doesn't like University students. Second, it doesn't care about poor residents. As the University continues to grow each year, demand for off-Grounds housing has skyrocketed. Thankfully, we've seen a spate of new construction that's kept prices reasonable and students housed. Unfortunately, the Commission has deemed it necessary to interfere with this happy state of affairs.
By voting for a height restrictions on buildings, the Commission has single-handedly limited the supply of housing in Charlottesville. University Architect David Neuman, in an interview with The Cavalier Daily, notes that "a contemporary, air-conditioned high-rise building usually incorporates 12 stories, effectively ruling out the construction of high-rise and apartment buildings in the Downtown area." This is troublesome for two reasons. First, many graduate students live Downtown. Second, the price increases that will result from restricting the supply of housing Downtown will spill over to areas closer to the University, like 14th street and Jefferson Park Avenue.
It looks like the goal of Charlottesville policy makers is to ensure that hardworking University students can't afford a place to live. And that's the benign interpretation. It could well be that the Commission's agenda is actually to limit the growth of the University. It must think that too many bright young Virginians are getting a good education. This is especially puzzling because one of the biggest beneficiaries of the University is Charlottesville. The University employs thousands of people, brings in millions of dollars in government grants and attracts businesses with its steady supply of human capital. By pursuing policies that hurt University students, Charlottesville policy makers are biting the hand that feeds them. The Commission and, by extension, the City Council had better start actually thinking through the impact of their policies.
And that's not even the worst of it. The people hardest hit by an increase in housing pricing, which will necessarily result from the height restriction, are those least able to pay. This past year alone, the homeless population in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District has increased by 12 percent; homeless shelters in Charlottesville reported 231 adults and their 46 dependent children as homeless as of January, according to the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless census data. Jeffrey Cornelius, homeless management information systems administrator of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, was paraphrased in The Cavalier Daily, saying "the pressures of inflation and the rising costs of housing in the area are short-term catastrophes that have strongly contributed to this year's rise in homelessness." But instead of helping needy residents, Charlottesville's government is content to pursue "progressive" policies that push housing prices up even further.
The effects of the policy change are even more sinister with respect to race. An increase in housing prices hits poor people the hardest, and blacks and other minorities are disproportionately represented in the lowest income groups. The Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress concludes that "homelessness, like poverty, also disproportionately afflicts minorities. About 59 percent of the sheltered homeless population and 55 percent of the poverty population are members of minority groups, compared with only 31 percent of the total U.S. population. African-Americans constitute 12 percent of the total U.S. population, but 45 percent of people who are homeless."
If Charlottesville policy makers actually care about students, poor residents and minorities, they will pursue pro-growth policies. High-rise apartments might detract from Downtown's quaint, small-town feel, but they bring down housing prices which can make the difference between homeownership and homelessness. Similarly, despite all the complaining about CVS coming to Downtown, it can provide medicine and essential supplies, like soap, at lower prices than any local shop ever could. The best way to ameliorate the challenges faced by students and the poor is to end the needless restriction of developers and businesses. That would be truly progressive.
Josh Levy's columns appear Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at jlevy@cavalierdaily.com.
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