Architectural Review Board Meeting   3/15/2021

Yes, sir.

Great.

All right.

Well, being 1.01 p.m., we're calling to order the March 15th, 2021 meeting of the Omaha County Architectural Review Board.

This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with ordinance number 20-A16, an ordinance to ensure the continuity of government during the COVID-19 disaster.

Quorum is present.

Architectural review board members present electronically are myself, Dave Van Der Werf, Frank Hancock, Chris Henningsen, and Frank Stoner.

There will be opportunities for public access to this meeting, which are posted on the county's website at the county calendar.

The public has real-time audio visual access to this meeting over Zoom and real-time audio access over telephone, both as provided in the lawfully posted meeting notice

This meeting is being recorded and will be made available on the county's website.

This online meeting is a public record and subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

All speakers, when it's your turn to speak, please first state your name for the record.

For everyone participating today, please remain muted when you're not speaking.

Applicants who are making presentations, note that your presentation is limited to 15 minutes, which you can divide among your team.

Carolyn will let us know when the 15 minutes are up.

Let's see, do any members have any disclosures today?

There are no consent agenda items and no regular review items.

There are no work sessions either for today, but we do have two other business items.

And first we'll be discussing two entrance corridors.

Fred will be sharing, will be presenting on Fontaine Avenue and I will share some information on a portion of Route 250 West.

Sure can.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

And Frank Hancock, this is going to be about a three hour presentation of Fontaine Avenue.

So you might miss some of it, but I can follow up with some notes.

I told Margaret, I kind of panicked for a minute.

I'm like, wait, is this it?

Zero point seven nine miles of road.

This is pretty simple.

So you're going to see a lot of pictures of trees.

Got a little bit of kind of insight background on some of the properties because a lot of them are controlled by the university or the foundation.

So I'm happy to share what I know there and what I know to be public knowledge there.

But to begin, I think everybody's aware of where we're talking about in general, the city line over here on the right and then the county on the left.

So just zooming in a little bit closer, the area that I've looked at essentially extends from

A little bit further here on the right from Mimosa Drive, really the city line to the north, all the way down to Reservoir Road and then your intersection with the Trinity Church parking lot.

It is about 0.75 miles.

This is a little bit inaccurate because that extends from the city line to the north here all the way down, and I think

Technically the road is in the city until that point and then it becomes state maintained after that, for what it's worth.

So I think that means that technically the entrance corridor begins here.

That was my assumption.

This is just a quick note on the primary uses.

This is from the comprehensive plan.

Primarily, it is office R&D flex light industrial.

That's the purple.

The yellow is neighborhood density residential.

And then also you can see a fair amount of green mixed through here, which is identified as public parks and green space.

This just is the zoning overlay and this is highway or plan development mixed commercial is what we zoned the Fontaine Research Park to be designated back in 2010.

This is the old, we're going to refer to this as the Maury Creek site, also known as the UPG site until we bought it.

So UPG had pursued a rezoning for this area and we'll see some pictures of that in just a minute.

and then obviously Buckingham Circle neighborhood right in here.

Some of you probably heard about the Granger track, which is located back in this area on the other side of the railroad tracks.

And I've understood or I think I heard recently that there may be some renewed interest in developing the Granger track.

Access is a real bear because you do have to go under the railroad tracks.

But that would not

I don't believe impact any of the Fontaine viewshed, but probably would 64 and potentially 29.

I don't think 29.

This pink area right here is noted as commercial office, I believe, but this is state property.

This is the state forestry department here.

And then on the other side, this red is highway commercial.

That's the school we'll see in just a minute.

and then this area up back here I think is the Forestry Department as well, or VDOT, I'm sorry, I think that's VDOT.

So I'll just, here you go, this is just, I've put together some of the owners, obviously this is city, this is a very urban mixed use area, the red dots designate the photographs,

UVA Fontaine Research Park.

Many of you know that we developed that over the span of about 25 years.

We started in the mid 90s and we sold the Fontaine Research Park to the university back in, I think it was 2018.

And so that is now grounds, considered university grounds.

This is also obviously considered a university over here and would probably, this is O'Hill, this would probably be considered by them as long-term holdings, primarily open space, pretty rugged, difficult terrain to develop.

This back here is the Forestry Department.

This over here is also the state of Virginia.

This is VDOT.

and then over here is UVA Foundation Foxhaven, which includes the Maury Creek Creek property, which would be a long term hold for the university.

That's a little bit of context.

So now I'll just walk you through the corridor.

This is obviously not in the county, but again, for context, to give you some idea of what's there, the BP and then adjacent to the BP is the fire station.

It's relatively new.

and then moving down, this on the right hand side is Piedmont Housing.

Piedmont Housing is owned by the university, so this is considered grounds as well.

There has been discussion about whether or not what's at Piedmont is A, still the highest and best use for the property or if there's some other alternative use that could be considered

Longer term, and I can tell you that's been a question that has been around as long as I've been at the foundation, which is 20 years this year.

It's faculty housing, married faculty housing, I believe.

Then just continuing down, like I told you, there'll be a lot of pictures of trees.

This is sort of the compression, the area between the city and the county, the transition point.

And then moving west, most of these slides will be looking west,

This is as you come out onto county property through the city transition and as you approach the Fontaine Research Park.

When we developed the Fontaine Research Park, we actually petitioned BDOT to allow us to create this median and to maintain the median.

So we actually, our maintenance when we owned it came out to the median itself.

And even we had some maintenance on the north side of Fontaine Avenue just to try to create a nice frontage for all of Fontaine.

I'm not honestly sure what facilities management has been doing out there, but we would plant the annuals and just kind of try to dress it up a bit.

So it was a nice first impression.

Getting closer to the entrance itself of Fontaine.

Here you can see a little bit of the groomed landscape on the right-hand side.

And then the entrance itself.

I think many of you know this, just as a side note, during normal times, football, this is football parking.

So there's a lot of pedestrian traffic that comes along this sidewalk here, crosses, and then goes up into the parking lots of Fontaine where people tailgate.

So just continuing down, moving west again.

This is the overpass of Route 29 and the bypass.

Again, we're on the east side of the intersection looking back.

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about proffers associated with a the expansion of the Fontaine Research Park or and or be the development of the Maury Creek property.

A lot of those proffers were widening these roads, creating pedestrian connections under the bridge between the I guess it's the east and the west side.

and also improving some of the on and off ramps by widening them.

At times there was discussion about potentially even needing to improve the Route 64 interchange, but I think that's being taken care of and that never became part of the proffers.

So this is probably too much information, but since this is such a short length of road, when UPG went to rezone their parcel, which I'll show in a minute,

Not only were they required to proffer development or transportation improvements associated with their increased capacity, but they also proffered all of the improvements with the exception of some of the frontage improvements at the Fontaine Research Park.

They proffered all of those improvements required to expand the Fontaine Research Park square footage from what is now 500,000, about 565,000 square feet

up to 810,000 square feet, which was the most recent rezoning.

One thing I'll note, and since we're close to the Fontaine Research Park, the university has, as public knowledge on the university's university architect's website, a study of the Fontaine Research Park expansion.

So

I didn't add a deference to Alice Rouscher.

I didn't want to share that today during the public meeting, but it is public information.

And essentially it talks about how they can build structured parking, which may or may not be adjacent to Fontaine Avenue.

So that's one consideration for visibility from the entrance corridor.

And then they were also going to primarily create more density internally to the research park.

So this is now on the west side of the intersection, Route 29.

And this is the intersection to Buckingham Circle.

And in the distance here, you can see the Maury Creek property.

And when we get here, I'll have another picture looking back at the school.

I believe I had one of those.

This is the Maury Creek property.

To the right is primarily all floodplain, but this property had zoned, I believe it was a hundred thousand square foot office building, and at one point also a daycare center for the university physicians group.

And that would have been back in maybe 2010, probably 2012 timeframe, I'd say.

For now, we have sort of looked at this as part of an assembly of properties, which includes the majority of the residential properties on Reservoir Road that we've acquired, and then also connecting back to Fox Haven Farm, which then goes all the way into the golf course, Birdwood Golf Course, and eventually ends up at Route 250.

So it's a big swath of land right through there.

No immediate plans for any of this.

This is

Pretty much, I think, the one building that's visible on the entire length of road.

It's the Keys Academy, and it's a school.

And I don't know how many uses it's had.

I think it's always been a school, but something tells me that in the past it was a different school.

But it's, as I said, one building on the corridor that gives you a sense of the type of

The style and architecture and it's pretty traditional.

Moving forward, this is really sort of the end, I think, or pretty close to the end of the corridor where it intersects with Reservoir Road.

If you turn right, the residences on the right hand side are all associated with or owned by the Foundation.

and then as you continue down further, you get into Trinity Presbyterian Church and essentially the dead end of Fontaine Avenue.

So a couple of things just to consider, the majority of the land is either owned or controlled by the university.

Some land, primarily Foxhaven Farm, Maury Creek, Observatory Hill,

are all being held for long-term needs of the university.

There is an anticipated expansion of the Fontaine Research Park by the UVA Health System.

I don't know time frame on that, but it's probably not more than maybe five years out, depending on how everybody recovers financially from our friend COVID.

Definitely anticipate traffic improvements to this area, including the potential widening of the roads.

The city, as many of you may know, have plans to widen the roads going into the city.

The Fontaine frontage actually was expanded by us to add a lane when we added when we went from about three hundred and fifty thousand square feet to five hundred and seventy five thousand or sixty five thousand square feet.

So that's already been widened.

But there's

Additional properties, as I mentioned, that could be associated with that and the turn lanes.

So that was it.

Thank you very much, Fred.

I really appreciate you being able to share that with us.

Thanks Fred.

Great insight and info on that small but very consequential corridor.

Just maybe a question for Margaret.

Did we review an application for the Keys Academy?

I think we did.

I don't, that name does not

strike a bell with me.

Oh, is that is that the one you're thinking about?

Was it the Regent School?

Oh yeah, Regent, that's right.

Is that a different property than the Keys Academy?

Right back in here.

Can you guys see my screen?

Yeah.

Yeah, right back in this area, I believe.

So the Regent School is adjacent to the other side of the church property.

And I think it's more than one parcel.

And so the corridor stops.

And we were just really reviewing it from because of the visibility from the corridor.

Oh, 64.

OK. Gotcha.

Sure.

It was great to kind of have your insider's view of a lot of how these current existing developments kind of happened.

And I think, you know, it seems like either the foundation or the university is going to be involved in pretty much anything that we see along this corridor.

Yeah, I think that's probably right, Chris.

Yeah, thank you very much, Fred.

I really appreciate your insight and perspective.

I guess as a state institution, UVA wouldn't be coming before us.

Well, we come before the ARB.

The university, I meant to look this up.

There's area A and area B and area C. And I think this is in area C, but I'm not sure about that.

I will say this, and that is that, especially, have you guys heard of LUPEC, Land Use Planning and Environmental Council?

So now I'm drawing a blank.

It used to be PAC and PAC Tech Planning and Advisory Council, I think.

And so PAC was formed out of the three party agreement that was established by the University of the City and the County back in the 80s.

And PAC was dissolved about a year and a half ago.

And the Land Use Planning and Environmental Council, LUPAC,

was established.

Lutech is not a public group like PAC was, but it's made up of City, County, University, UVA Foundation, and Rivanna Sewer and Water Authority.

And so a number of us sit on that and communicate projects like this to each other.

So if something like this were to come up, I mean, I'm not on there as an ARB rep, but

You know, I could be, have my ears to the ground.

So I would imagine it would still be over communicated.

Sorry, certificate of appropriateness.

Right.

Yeah.

Well, having had the chance to live in Melissa for a year when we first relocated here, it was a good use of the time, but I certainly can imagine more dense and intense ones there.

Great.

Any other observations?

Happy to turn to

Just some more on 250 West, and Fred, glad you're here for this as well, because it's a similar situation, not quite all UVA and Foundation, but a good deal.

Fred, do you know if that maintenance agreement stayed in place for the median,

I doubt it, Frank.

I doubt it because I'm not sure if the university, since it's a state entity, can have an agreement with another state entity.

I think there's something weird with that.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a great arrival.

Well, good, can you all see my screen?

Great, so just appreciated the chance to go through a fair portion of the 250 West Corridor earlier this year.

Today, we'll just be looking sort of at the last two miles.

Like Fred's portion of Fontaine, some of that is actually in the city as well.

So today, looking basically from Canterbury,

to the county city line at Old Ivy, and then a brief consideration of the corridor to Emmett, just to understand the continuity.

Fred, I liked your comp plan views, and can you find those in the GIS?

Yeah.

But yeah, just to look at zoning, this is a blow up of that zone, and you can see it's one of the few areas on the corridor with

commercial, highway commercial, and light industrial use.

And then just to understand ownership, I did highlight, I don't know if I got it exactly right, but this is, these are parcels that are either UVAs or the foundations.

So again, a very significant presence in the corridor.

So in terms of areas for our focus, really there are just a few parcels that are privately held.

especially at the gateway itself to the county.

And so it's been a little bit of time just looking at the character here in plan.

You know, it's characterized by a strong edge from the Buckingham Branch railroad and currently above ground utility lines, power lines are a significant portion to character of that corridor visually.

There's a lot of bamboo that's pretty continuous behind the real line that for the most part screens the development on Old Ivy.

There's a nice appearance of sort of the local traditional stone wall along the orthopedic center and the UVA Police Complex.

And then I was struck as well by how on the south side of the road

There's a somewhat consistent setback in building frontages.

Actually, the new Sintara building is stepping out a little bit, although still in line with the canopy at the Shell Station.

But then also, I think it was interesting just to recognize that I think the buildings on Old Ivy address Old Ivy pretty consistently, but vary a bit in how they relate to 250 West.

So looking into the county from the city, really on the threshold by St. Anne's here, and then the first building in the county, the IOT provisions.

Most of the buildings here predate, I think, the guidelines so they don't exhibit relegated parking or the landscape standards, and certainly have a very diminutive scale from the family and quite more a previously rural character of the county, certainly this

that station reflects that.

The town side I think is a nice example of the guidelines in effect.

I guess I did notice it looks like their landscaping I think has suffered a bit over recent years.

I think they lost the understory trees a few years ago and some of the planting so it'd be nice to see that returned at some point although I imagine in COVID right now it's difficult for businesses to reinvest in that.

Let's see, Vivace and WTJU on the left.

And then Google obviously hasn't caught up with the developments in the county.

There's significant changes underway with the Martha Jefferson Sentara Physicians Building going up next to the Teague General Services and across the way from Old Ivy Road.

properties, and of course, the new significant orthopedics center, which is a very, very significant building now on the corridor.

We built it.

We actually, it's owned by UVA.

OK, great.

and then of course UVA police and security complex.

And now turning back to look east, that's I think the UVA data center and the foreground on the left and a UVA storage facility.

But I think interesting in terms of low background brick buildings also sort of relate well with that railway edge.

And then I think it's Faulkner that occupies this building primarily,

significant office building on Old Ivy making an appearance on Ivy Road.

So I think a couple quick takeaways and Fred thank you for the clarification so it's helpful to know that while I'm not subject to ARB guidelines may still consult with the ARB.

As I noted many existing developments on the south side predate the EC guidelines and

character of the corridor is changing very significantly.

The north side seems to be a clear edge condition that is clear in terms of utilities and the rail line and invasive landscaping in some places, but could be improved I think over time with more regular landscaping.

And initial thoughts were, it seems to make sense to me that where the EC guidelines have been implemented, they seem to be successful as the other parcels

developed worth continuing to enforce them.

And Fred, appreciate this chance to consult with you and wonder as well, given the significant impact that BVA's and the foundation's vision will have on the character of the corridor, how we might understand that and anticipate how parcels in the county could better relate to and form a consistent look at the purpose.

And then I think lastly,

250, great, okay.

Well, thank you.

And that's a quick tour through those.

So I guess we'll open up for discussion.

Thanks, Dave.

Yeah, I would agree that the corridor is rapidly changing.

And I think you mentioned that Sentara building.

I think that's gonna be interesting to see kind of that redevelopment, that level of redevelopment, if other parcels adjacent to that.

I know that's taller and maybe a little bit closer to the corridor, which I think is appropriate as we're moving in to the city and kind of more in the urban area.

But then I think you noted how there's a few buildings that you can,

As I drive through the county, I always think I'm like, oh, I can see that that was an ARV, you know, like the townside, perhaps, or kind of what you maybe see on some of Old Ivy Road, maybe the Faulkner building.

I don't know what the date of that is, but you can kind of see, you know, that might have gone through the ARV.

And, you know, I'm usually pleased with the results.

But no, thank you.

I think similar to Fontaine,

You know, very important entrance corridor, just the amount of people that come in this way to go to UVA and, you know, coming through the county, into the county.

So, you know, very important corridor.

Thanks, Frank.

Yeah, thank you.

That's a corridor that I'm very familiar with personally.

Every time I go to foods of all nations, I go that way.

And I'm encouraged that the development that we are seeing along this corridor is

You know, seems to be well done.

I'm interested to see how this entire building looks and gets landscaped, you know, in its final form, as with the orthopedic center, too.

I think it's regrettable that so much of that corridor is occupied on the

I guess it's the north side, but by the rail tracks, just because that seems to be something that's kind of out of our direct ability to influence how that looks.

Yeah, thanks, Dave.

I'll echo everything everyone just said and ask a couple of questions and then highlight one thing.

So in terms of having UVA projects be reviewed by the ARB, did we see or did you, I wasn't on the ARB at the time, but did you all review the musculoskeletal center at all?

Did you get any heads up that that was coming?

No?

Okay.

So it may, I don't know, maybe Lou Peck is an informal way of bringing those kinds of things forward, but it doesn't sound like it's part of a formal process.

The other thing is, I completely agree with what others have said, you know, that railroad and especially the utility lines along that side, it's just, it's not a great entrance corridor.

and, you know, as I think about the future of that entrance corridor, it's near and dear to me as well.

Chris, I've worked down at Boar's Head and drive that a lot with the development of the Hotel and Conference Center, the School of Data Sciences, everything on that corner up to Arlington.

That whole area is about 14 acres of land and it's got capacity for about three quarters of a million square feet.

of development in long term, so in like probably two phases.

So the traffic coming in from that intersection 250 and through there, there's going to be a large amount, a large traffic volume going through and in some cases going to be a lot of visitors coming in that way to access the university.

It's one of the two sort of front doors to the university, which is why the visitor center is located there.

unfortunately in the police station, that's looking to be relocated to the hotel and conference center.

So I think just highlighting the fact that that's gonna be super well used by visitors as an arrival, not only to the university, but to the city and to the county.

Yeah, thank you Fred.

Now a good point, I think in terms of Buckingham Branch and VDOT,

Don't really have any kind of mechanism to shape what's done in their right-of-way.

I guess, Margaret, is there anything on the back lot lines, in the back parking lots of buildings on Old Ivy that falls within our preview?

If it's within 500 feet of the

Of the right-of-way, well, let's say whatever's within 500 feet of the right-of-way has come under A or B review.

Yes, yeah.

Thank you.

Well, great.

Well, I think that the only other order of business we have today is adopting the March 1st minutes.

Thank you, Carolyn.

All right.

Mr. Mitchell?

Aye.

Great.

So next meeting is April 5th.

Oh, I most likely will not be able to attend.

So if everybody else is

You're correct, Margaret.

I'm sorry.

I think I neglected to say that Fred was.

It's on autopilot.

Thank you for catching up.

Well, safe travels to Massachusetts, Chris.

Thank you, everybody, for your time and contributions today.

I look forward to seeing everybody in April.

Great.

Thanks, Dave.