Charlottesville settles lawsuit over missing middle housing law

The home of the University of Virginia has ended a nightmare that left a new “missing middle” zoning code in limbo due to a legal technicality.

Charlottesville has settled a lawsuit with several homeowners who filed a complaint in January 2024, alleging the city did not follow proper procedure when it passed an ordinance in December 2023 that ended single-family zoning. While the city did not admit to wrongdoing, it agreed to conduct traffic and infrastructure studies that the owners believed officials should have completed under state law before approving the ordinance.

In June, a judge issued a default judgment that threw the zoning ordinance into limbo, but it was reversed in late August.

As has become common across the country, homeowners and activists continue to oppose new zoning laws intended to increase density — even on a modest scale — by filing costly lawsuits.

In Virginia alone, Arlington County is still fighting a lawsuit filed by homeowners following the 2023 passage of a missing middle housing ordinance that ended single-family zoning, claiming the county failed to adequately study its impact on stormwater systems, traffic and schools. The homeowners initially won, but then lost on appeal and have since appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Neighboring Alexandria recently won a two-year legal battle over a major zoning overhaul that eliminated single-family zoning.

With the new zoning in full effect, developers will now face other code barriers, such as the requirement that 10% of development be affordable at 60% of the area’s median income for 99 years.

“It’s not something that’s affordable,” Charlie Armstrong, vice president at Southern development housingtold The builder’s newspaper. “You can’t get the acceptance to make it work.”

There is no deadline

In line with its sister cities in Virginia, Charlottesville adopted a new zoning code in December 2023 to increase residential density and expand affordable housing options by allowing multifamily housing in most neighborhoods. Large areas previously reserved for single-family homes could now house duplexes, triplexes and small apartment buildings.

Charlottesville found itself in an unprecedented situation after the city’s outside attorneys missed a crucial filing deadline. The homeowners took action, seeking a default judgment, which Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell granted on June 30.

With the repeal of the old zoning ordinance, intended to make way for the new one, the city may suddenly have no zoning code at all.

However, there was a wrinkle in the ruling: Worrell never signed a written order.

Nearly two weeks after the ruling, the city announced it would enforce the new code until the judge issues a formal written order. However, the city temporarily halted zoning reviews until officials received clarity, leaving developers in the dark.

“It definitely created a chilling effect,” Armstrong says. “People like us have been sitting on our hands for a while.”

Finding the path forward

Charlottesville attorneys continued the legal battle and eventually succeeded in convincing a judge to revive the lawsuit in late August. In August, Worrell turned itself around and set a trial date for September.

The city chose not to spend any money fighting the lawsuit and instead allocated $650,000 for traffic and infrastructure studies that homeowners said officials should have completed before the ordinance was passed.

“The cost to litigate this case will far exceed $650,000 if we were to go through trial and appeal,” City Attorney John Maddux told the council at an Oct. 20 meeting.

Maddux said homeowners turned this down over the summer. The homeowners later returned to town to settle down.

City officials are confident the studies will show the new code will not have the negative impacts homeowners claim.

The entire episode became a national cautionary tale — a rare glimpse into what happens when a city’s legal system fails to protect even the most basic land-use regulations.

Housing advocates and developers, frustrated by yet another barrier to building much-needed homes, pointed to the case as evidence of how easily local reforms can be toppled by technicalities and organized opposition from homeowners.

The next challenge for the city will be to confront whether its affordable housing goals are falling short, which could potentially prompt future changes to the code.

“We just want to create places for people to live,” Armstrong said. “But it must be financially feasible.”

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