"A Senate committee on Tuesday advanced a bill intended to promote more affordable housing in Charlottesville.

The bill would allow the city to collect money from a developer in lieu of having the developer provide affordable housing units at a high-density project.

The Senate Local Government Committee voted unanimously to approve House Bill 883, sponsored by Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville.

“There’s a lot of work that went into this bill,” Toscano said. “The Realtors, the local homebuilders, the local development community and the city all worked together to fashion a bill that makes sense for the city.”

Toscano said the bill, which passed the House 98-0 last week, could provide the city hundreds of thousands of dollars from high-rise condo developments.

The bill allows Charlottesville to establish affordable housing contributions from developers as a condition of the City Council’s approval of a special exception application for residential, commercial, or mixed-use projects with high density.

Under the bill, the provisions of the

ordinance would allow the developer to provide on-site Affordable Dwelling Units, off-site Affordable Dwelling Units, or a cash contribution to the city’s affordable housing fund in lieu of providing the units.

The bill and a companion measure sponsored by Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, were patterned after a law allowing Arlington County officials to collect contributions from high-rise condo developers for affordable housing elsewhere in that county, Toscano said." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, February 15, 2008)