The city needs more apartments sized for one or two people, design and planning firm WRT told residents at the Oct. 28 Williamsburg Tomorrow Community Listening Workshop. The City Council hired the firm in May to help update the city’s Comprehensive Plan. More than 60 people attended the session at the Community Building, the first of four community workshops planned for the update.
According to WRT’s presentation, about two-thirds of occupied homes are lived in by one or two people, while only 8% of the city’s housing is studios and one-bedroom apartments. Couples without children are the largest household type at 32%, and about one in six households is a person age 65 or older living alone.
More than four in five renters live in multifamily buildings, while nearly nine in 10 owners live in single-family homes, WRT said. City data cited in the presentation show only 5.6% of the city’s land is zoned for multifamily housing, compared with 41.6% for single-family homes.
About 3,100 William & Mary students compete for off-campus rentals, the firm’s slides showed. This likely contributes to the fact that 87% of the 1,461 renter households earning less than 80% of the city’s median household income ultimately spend more than a third of their income on housing. While living in Williamsburg as a student may be expensive, a separate dashboard from U3 Advisors (a sub-consultant on the plan), indicates that others public schools in urban and suburban markets have similar costs. For example, the firm estimated market costs of off-campus housing and food for students at William & Mary to be $9,165, compared with $9,520 for the University of Virginia, $9,052 for Old Dominion University and $8,953 for Christopher Newport University.
A community survey is open through Dec. 31, and a second community workshop focused on visioning is planned for April 2027 as part of the 18- to 24-month planning process. The city is also seeking about eight resident volunteers to serve as Community Ambassadors, who would work with City staff to spread the word about the planning process and get neighbors involved. The commitment is about two to four hours a month for roughly 12 months, starting in early 2027. Applications are open through Dec. 31, and priority will go to applicants who can connect with residents who face barriers to participating.
We’re committed to keeping local news accessible for everyone. EMAIL us for a free all-access subscription, for any reason, no questions asked.