Could old shopping centers accommodate new affordable housing?

(RECAP: As stores begin to open at the new 5th Street Station, people will be able to get there to shop or work via a new Charlottesville Area Transit bus route. But some are wondering if older shopping centers along CAT’s other routes can be redeveloped to give more people the option of living in a place where they have another transportation choice. “Many women with children who are required to work and want to work can’t work because they can’t get to a job in the prescribed period of time to get there,” said Anne Linden, an Albemarle County resident who faced that issue as a single mother of four children. Linden said the opening of shopping centers such as Stonefield and 5th Street Station has caused others to decline. “I know that there are big empty spaces in some of the malls,” Linden said. “Some of the space could be used for affordable housing and even some child care.”)