INFOGRAPHIC: Williamsburg City Council Land Development & Related Activity (2024)
A review of significant land development issues, including rezoning, special use permits, sale of City-owned property and public debt
The data in the infographic below is found mostly on the City of Williamsburg’s website, if you know where and how to look. In fact, over 50 different web pages (and a dozen Council meeting recordings) were reviewed to compile this summary. I also reviewed reporting by other local media and indicated where their data was used.
You will find nothing like this summary on the City’s website (or anywhere else for that matter.) That’s not meant to pat myself on the back — it’s something to keep in mind when you hear local leadership claim they really want a robust discussion around future land development. Compare their statements to their actions (and the effort it actually took to make sure you’re informed).
A sampling of the issues I encountered while trying to gather this information for you include, but are not limited to:
Scattered Data: As mentioned, there is no central place for information related to development projects in the City. Information is scattered across silos such as the Planning Department, Architectural Review Board, Planning Commission and City Council pages, among others.
Hard to Find Meeting Minutes: Locating meeting minutes would be a challenge for most first-time users of the City’s website. And in the recent past, these records haven’t been kept current at all. For example, the Council didn’t approve and post the meeting minutes for January-August 2024 until September 2024. Since then, they’ve buried links to recent meeting minutes on the following months’ Council Agenda page, but provide them nowhere else. (They were not relied upon for this reporting.) When you click on the City’s link for “Meetings and Agendas” you're taken into another difficult to navigate page on the City’s CivicWeb portal, not easily accessible records.
Missing Voting Records: The City Council provides a link on CivicWeb to each Council Member’s voting record. As of the time of this writing, the only votes listed are for September 2024. There aren’t any listed votes going back to at least January 2024, nor any after September 2024.
Incomplete Activity Reporting: The City provides a document that lists the passed “Resolutions” and “Ordinances” for the year. That information is woefully incomplete in capturing the totality of Council’s voting activity. For example, only one of the 14 votes chosen for the land development infographic below was published by the City in that summary.
Limited Access to Public Notices: At the time of this writing, the last public notice posted on the City’s website under “Public Notices” and “City Council” was April 2024 (dated 5-9-2024). This was notice for a public hearing in May where the council was to discuss a rezoning request for Landmark Village (the proposal was subsequently withdrawn and no vote was taken). Since then, the Council has voted on rezoning for at least 3 distinct projects and a Special Use Permit. I couldn’t find links for their public notices about any of those votes under “Public Notices.” One was found by searching the exact record number in Google, though the others returned no meaningful results.
Clearly the City could do better. Until then, in an effort to keep you informed and up to date, the data behind this infographic will soon be made accessible to the public online as both an interactive development map and a searchable database. So stay tuned for that. I strive for completeness and accuracy, so as always, please let me know if you notice any omissions or errors. Thanks for reading!
(UPDATE 1-21-25: Graphic updated to reflect feedback. Specifically, the Planning Commission did not make a recommendation to Council about the Midtown Row Conversion. Though a motion to deny was voted down. A motion to approve was not made. A typo was also corrected.)
George Arbogust is Founder and Editor of the Williamsburg Independent. You can contribute too! Email tips and story ideas: contact@williamsburgindependent.com