Staff outlines comprehensive plan update, shows county crash and traffic maps

Planning staff provided a brief update on the county’s comprehensive plan update and demonstrated interactive and static maps to help visualize traffic and crash patterns.

Mr. Fortune said work is proceeding on plan sections and staff is adding a new rural preservation section; four advisory groups (economic development, rural preservation, housing, historic preservation) are reviewing documents. Staff expects to bring sections to the commission as they are ready and anticipates completion in the latter half of 2026.

Alex Porter, the planner/GIS technician, demonstrated four maps: average daily traffic volumes on county roads, crash point data for 2020–2024 colored by severity, a weighted crash density heat map, and a map estimating crashes per million vehicle miles traveled (a standard industry metric). Porter said the crash data were trimmed from state data to Fluvanna County boundaries and that the dataset runs through 2024; 2025 data are not yet included.

Porter offered interactive access and said static versions of the maps will be posted in the transportation section of the draft comprehensive plan. Commission members requested the timeline for updated data and asked staff to consider including recent years when available.