Planning Tool: Future Land Use Categories and Map

Today, land in Albemarle County is used in various ways, including for houses, businesses, offices, industry, parks, farms, and land conservation. The type of development, amenity, or protection of a property is referred to as its ‘land use.’ For example, a property with an apartment building would have a residential land use.

Since the Comprehensive Plan is a guiding document for our community’s future, it focuses on future land uses, using both future land use categories and a Future Land Use Map (FLUM). Future land use categories provide a guiding vision for a property's future use. The Future Land Use Map shows how the future land use categories are applied. The FLUM depicts how an area should look and feel in the future; however, it does not necessarily represent what it is like today.

The FLUM guides development and informs land use decisions. The rezoning and special use permit review process includes comparing a development application with the recommended future land uses per the Comp Plan.

The updated Comprehensive Plan proposes consolidating the 20+ land use categories designated across the five Area Plans (Places29, Southern and Western, Pantops, Crozet, and Village of Rivanna) to 11 standard categories. Many of the 20+ current categories are very similar with overlapping recommendations. These 11 standard categories and their designation on the FLUM would update and replace the 20+ categories in the Area Plans when the AC44 Comprehensive Plan is adopted. Several ‘legacy’ categories would remain in their respective Area Plans. The standard 11 categories will be applied with future Area Plan updates.

FUTURE LAND USE CATEGORIES

FUTURE LAND USE MAP (DRAFT)

Additional Resources:

• Future Land Use Overview poster from the 10/30/24 Community Check-In
• Comparing Current Comprehensive Plan and AC44 Draft Future Land Use Maps