The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission

Welcome to www.tjpdc.org, home of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. TJPDC's mission is to serve our local governments by providing regional vision, collaborative leadership and professional service to develop effective solutions. For more information about the TJPDC please click here.

TJPDC Applies for Regional Brownfields Assessment Assistance

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) submitted an application to the Environmental Protection Agency on November 23rd to support the Thomas Jefferson Regional Brownfield Assessment and Planning Project. Brownfields are properties (often commercial or industrial) that are afflicted by real or potential environmental contamination associated with previous uses of the site. This perception of contamination stifles reinvestment in such properties because of fear of liability for potentially costly environmental cleanup. Brownfields often result in un- or underutilized infrastructure that facilitates blight in established communities. The requested assessment funds would make possible the planning work that is necessary to transform brownfield properties, of which several have been identified in the participating localities. The coalition of localities participating in the grant includes the Counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa, the City of Charlottesville, and the Towns of Scottsville, Louisa, Mineral, and Columbia.

Please click here for a Copy of the Application.

Take the Livable Communities; Housing & Economic Drivers Survey!

At the Housing & Economic Drivers Workshop on December 1, the public was given the opportunity to take a survey to offer perspectives on local housing and economic development issues. If you missed the workshop, you can take the survey online. Survey results from the December workshop can be found on the Meetings & Events page.

TJPDC e–News is issued on a quarterly basis to keep you informed about the programs and projects at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. In addition to e-mail, every issue of TJPDC e–News is posted on our website. Read the current eNews. 

Identifying Natural Hazards and Assessing Regional Vulnerability

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is in the process of updating the Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan for all localities within the planning district. The plan will help our communities take action to prepare for natural disasters beforehand, thus reducing loss of life and property damage when they do occur.

A draft of the goals and objectives for the plan is available here for public comment. To help in guiding this process please take our public input survey to provide feedback on these goals and objectives. Click here to take survey

Drafts of the first two sections of the plan have been completed and are available here for public review (Hazard Identification and Analysis, Vulnerability Assessment). The Hazard Identification and Analysis section identifies all possible natural hazards for our region, analyzes the extent and severity of their impact, and prioritizes them accordingly. The Vulnerability Assessment compares the region’s susceptibility to hazards with existing and projected development, in order to assess our region’s vulnerability to natural disasters. Economic losses and human impact are estimated for various hazard scenarios. For more information contact Daniel Nairn at dnairn@tjpdc.org or (434)979-7310 x290.

Solid Waste Management Plan Adopted

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission adopted a required 5-year update to the regional Solid Waste Management Plan on October 6, 2011. The update includes a description of existing and projected solid waste needs and facilities, as well as a plan for management of the solid waste generated by residential, industrial and commercial activities of the Thomas Jefferson Solid Waste Planning Unit (TJSWPU). This document serves as the regional plan for the TJSWPU, which is made up of the Counties of Albemarle, Greene, and Fluvanna, the City of Charlottesville, and the towns of Columbia, Scottsville, and Stanardsville. The plan meets the solid waste planning requirements for each locality participating in the planning unit by describing existing and proposed solid waste management systems that support the hierarchy of source reduction, reuse, recycling, resource recovery, incineration, and landfilling, as set forth by Virginia Code.

A committee of citizens and public and private sector representatives met regularly over the course of a year to amend this plan both to satisfy the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requirements, and to serve as a basis for strategic planning for solid waste in the longer term. The group reviewed data and trends on waste generation, recycling, reuse, and disposal, comparing it with data available about solid waste management systems capacity to determine future needs. Click here to view the Approved Plan.

Second Edition Toolkit - Including update for 2010 Census

The Second Edition of the Transportation and Housing Alliance (THA) Toolkit is now available and ready for use. The Transportation and Housing Alliance (THA) is a statewide initiative in Virginia linking public and private efforts in the areas of housing and transportation. The Toolkit was produced through a grant awarded to the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) by the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities (VBPD). VBPD recognized the important role of Planning District Commissions in developing and using this Toolkit.

The purpose of the Toolkit is to create plans that lead to livable communities for all citizens. The Toolkit provides approaches to assess current housing and transportation needs, project future needs, and identify overlapping issues and opportunities. To learn more, please visit our THA Toolkit Page.

Supplemental Update – Transitioning to American Community Survey Data and 2010 Census

Eco-logical Final Report Available

In 2008, the Federal Highway Administration awarded the TJPDC with a grant to support the integration of regional green infrastructure planning with its transportation planning program. The completion of this project in May, 2011 has resulted in the development of several tools that would allow planning district localities to assess conflicts between regionally important natural resources and transportation projects in the planning phase of infrastructure development. The content of the project will assist the MPO in fulfilling SAFETEA-LU planning requirements.

Guided by an advisory committee of local planners and environmental managers, the TJPDC applied a systems view of the natural environment in which transportation networks operate. This approach allowed us to better understand how conflict between green and transportation infrastructure can best be avoided and minimized, and how mitigation of transportation-caused impacts can serve the long-term health and vitality of ecosystems. Eco-logical endorses integrated planning to identify a region’s highest conservation priorities and management of mitigation funds to fulfill those needs, allowing the limited funding made available through the compensatory mitigation program to achieve the maximum ecological restoration potential.

This long-term, programmatic approach seeks to minimize conflict between the missions of partnering agencies, enhances cooperation and awareness across organizational boundaries, and advances both environmental and transportation needs at the regional scale.

TJPDC Receives Sustainable Communities Planning Grant

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) was one of 45 awardees across the country selected for HUD’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant out of 225 submissions. As the lead applicant, TJPDC represented the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), major partners including the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, and the University of Virginia as a consulting partner, and other partners: the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA), Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development (TJPED), Rivanna River Basin Commission (RRBC), and the Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP). The outcome of the three-year project will be a full regional implementation plan for the MPO area, consisting of the City of Charlottesville and the urbanized area of Albemarle County in Central Virginia. The Charlottesville Region Sustainability Implementation Plan will build on the region’s 1998 Sustainability Accords and other planning documents to integrate strategies for land use, transportation, housing, economic development, air and water quality, and energy use. The project will move sustainability in the region from a regional goal to actual implementation through products resulting from this planning effort:

1. Sustainability Baseline and Performance Measurement System
2. Common Land Use – Transportation Vision for the Charlottesville/Albemarle Region
3. Integration of Sustainability Strategies into Comprehensive Plans and the Long Range Transportation Plan
4. Code and Ordinance Sustainability Recommendations
5. Plan for Behavior Change Processes

The narrative describing the planning process and products is available here.

The Water Street Center is Hosting Events

Facility Able to Host Meetings, Trainings and Conferences
TJPDC is pleased to introduce a new initiative, the Water Street Center, located adjacent to the TJPDC offices on Water Street just off Charlottesville's Downtown Mall and offering excellent facilities for training and conferences.  Government agencies and community groups are welcome to use the Center, whose primary focus is as a space offering training programs for elected and appointed officials and staff of our member governments so they may better serve their communities. The Center’s website is located at www.tjpdc.org/waterstreet/.

Public Service Training at the Water Street Center
The Public Service Training Program of the Water Street Center is specifically designed to offer training to our member governments, which are the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties.  In order to best assess local government training needs. A broad range of topics were identified, including training on ways to make the job of planning commissioners and planning staff easier, and how to address specific issues that arise for planning commissioners and board of zoning appeals members. The identified topics were prioritized and TJPDC staff is hosting training programs with a focus on the priority topics. For more information, contact Steve Williams at swilliams@tjpdc.org or 434-979-7310 ext110.

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission serves the localities in Planning District 10, which include the City of Charlottesville and the Counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson.

Created in 1972, the TJPDC is directed by a twelve member board, consisting of two representatives appointed by each local governing board, more than half of whom are local elected officials. The Commissioners meet monthly to discuss the activities and direction of the TJPDC.