Architectural Review Board Meeting   3/6/2023

On my watch it's 1-0-2.

I'm calling the March 6, 2023 meeting of the Albemarle County Architecture Review Board to order.

Yes.

Thank you.

All right.

Thanks a lot.

Today's meeting is a hybrid meeting.

The public may access and participate in the meeting electronically.

Instructions for doing so are posted on the Albemarle County website at the Albemarle 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 meeting is a public record and subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

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

Applicants who are making presentations note that your presentation

is limited to a total of 15 minutes, which you can divide among your team members.

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

If applicants in the meeting room have team members attending virtually who will need to present, please make that known when you come to the podium.

Everyone who is participating virtually, please mute your microphone until it is your turn to speak.

No.

All right.

Thanks.

All right.

Thanks.

We have no consent agenda items today.

There's one regular review item today.

Things never move quite as quickly as you want.

This is an application for a building permit for the apartment buildings in block 12 of the Southwood Development.

and that site is located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Hickory Street and Old Lynchburg Road and it is the northeast end of the overall southward development.

It's the only block of the development that falls within the entrance quarter overlay and you all probably recall that Old Lynchburg Road is classified as an arterial from the city boundary only as far as Hickory Street and that's why the entrance quarter overlay ends at that point.

You'll also recall from our February 6th meeting that the site plan for this project was reviewed without ARB input because the arterial status of the corridor was still in question when the plan was submitted.

That final site plan has been approved, so your review today is not about the site plan, it's limited only to the architecture of the buildings.

One thing to note, however, about the site plan is that the trees between the corridor and the buildings are not located on the Southwood property.

They're in the right of way.

They're not under the control of the applicant.

Just point out that the color rendering of the plan shows trees to be added in that area.

That's not consistent with the approved site plan.

The approved layout of the site orients the buildings towards Hickory Street and toward the corner where Hickory intersects with Horizon Street.

Consequently, the building elevation that fronts on the entrance corridor doesn't have the appearance of a true front.

Corner Bay of that elevation, however, is given some extra detailing at the cornice.

It's an appropriate treatment for the location at the entrance to the development at that corner.

But in our analysis, we recommended that the applicant consider revisions that would establish more of a front facing the entrance corridor.

The proposed building materials include two shades of brick and fiber cement panels in khaki brown and white.

The shade of white is arctic white, which the Airbnb has limited to trim and decorative elements on other projects in the entrance corridors.

We have not recommended an alternate color in this case because the color is also used on the apartment building across Hickory Street.

It's appropriate in this case because it will contribute to establishing an integrated streetscape and an integrated overall development.

Window glass specs were not included in the original submittal, but the applicant has confirmed that the glass meets the guidelines criteria and those specs should be added to the drawings.

And finally, the applicant has provided information showing that rooftop mechanical equipment will not be visible from the entrance quarter street and that standard note still needs to be added to the plan.

So our recommendation is for approval with the condition that the two standard notes be added to the plans and that consideration be given to establishing more of a front on the entrance quarter street.

All right.

If any ARB members have questions for staff.

Frank, do you have any questions?

Thank you, Margaret, for highlighting that the trees by the EBC are outside the applicant's control.

No further questions.

Thanks.

I do not have any questions.

Hello, thank you.

My name is Whitney McDermott, I'm with BRW Architects, and I'm here to present the Hickory Hope Apartments developed by Piedmont Housing Alliance today in the Southwood neighborhood.

Thank you, Margaret, for your presentation.

This is an outline of the presentation I hope to give today.

First, I'd like to say that I'm presenting on behalf of PHA, but would like to mention that Ernestia Coles and Michael Eaton, both of PHA, are with me here today and could be here for any questions that might arise specific to the funding or the long-term operations.

of the buildings.

I will start with going over the project site and more specifics about the building and then I wanted to kind of circle back to some of the points made during our discussion last month and in response to the

The least context for our response to the front and the building facade facing the entrance corridor.

And then just go into the renders and the materials which we've just seen so we can go through that a little more quickly.

So, sorry, I'll get rid of this.

So again, yes, here's the site plan.

70 apartment units split between two buildings at the intersection of Hickory and Old Lynchburg Road.

This is the landscape plan.

It shows that, yes, the landscape is just contained to the parcel.

And this plan shows that the main entrance points of the building are kind of those black arrows in there, either from the parking lot, but the main ones are kind of surrounding that first corner park, the main focus of the building design, which you can also see in this

Very small maybe floor plan that shows the building is generally a double-loaded corridor.

This is the first floor.

And on the first floor, there are apartment units, one, two, and three bedroom apartment units that are at the ends.

And then as you approach that corner park, the uses get more public.

The elevator lobbies, the mail room, that kind of stuff is around there, but also

A community room to be used by all of Southwood and I would note that that corner park is also public and open to the public.

And then on the other building there's a leasing space for Piedmont Housing Alliance.

That's how the buildings are designed to work.

And so this is kind of the slide I showed last time we spoke, and it's just an outline of the building's design and funding context, funding history for a larger context of what the building design has been through.

And I should note that 100% of the units are affordable.

It's financed primarily with low-income housing tax credits, which are awarded and administered by Virginia Housing.

The equity that's raised from the credits, that's what reduces the amount of loan that's required to construct the project, and that keeps the rents affordable for low-income households.

And like I said, 100% of the units are affordable, and then all of the units are also accessible in accordance with universal design guidelines.

The funding mechanism, LIHTC, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, is tied to a process and that process really kicked off for this project in February 2021 when we went with a kind of a detailed design level

building to the Southwood ARB and they approved it and then we followed quickly with submitting for those LIHTC credit awards in March of 2021 and those were awarded in June of 2021.

The site plan that Margaret mentioned was originally submitted in the spring of that year as well.

and by the December of 2022 is when the final completed drawings were submitted to that funding source and were approved by January, early January of 2023 and I mention all of that because those are, that funding source really is what kind of locks the building's design and particularly the unit design and the number of units and their orientation

to those tax-exempt bonds.

And so the key takeaway here is that any major rework of kind of the organization or in addition to certain units might kick in a requirement to restart some of those processes.

We're aiming for on-site construction to begin hopefully by June of this year, which is also tied to the funding.

And that's why we're before the ARB with our building permit.

And then last time we talked we also mentioned kind of the ARB entrance quarter guidelines and then overlaying those with the Southwood internal ARB.

I mentioned we went before them in February of 2021 and they gave approval of this building, the internal ARB at Southwood.

And that internal ARB was created out of the rezoning for the first phase of Southwood.

It's a requirement of that code of development to have an internal ARB.

And I pulled out a lot of text here, but it's from the actual design guidelines from that neighborhood.

And those guidelines are based on the actual rezoning itself, the tables in that rezoning code of development.

And the key takeaway there is there's a lot of emphasis on Hickory Street.

In the upper right corner, you'll see an overall master plan for the Southwood.

The red is this designated as kind of a special highest density zone that residents see as more akin to a downtown.

Southwood, really focusing around this first intersection at Hickory and Horizon.

And that's why that corner park is located there.

And that's kind of sparked the design of the buildings themselves to kind of the entrances and everything to be focused around that park.

Third, I just wanted to mention looking at, I think Frank you might have mentioned last time looking at the context of the entrance corridor up and down.

And so these are just some views, the top left

I don't know the name.

I think it's Fifth Street something.

Sorry, I should have looked up the name but it's a multifamily a little bit further north on Fifth Street extended and you'll see a community space there that's orienting towards the

entrance to the little complex as opposed to the entrance corridor and then a lot of the other buildings that exist are set back a bit and it's harder to see their fronts and so I just wanted to mention that.

I know that the comprehensive plan and I think the southern and western

Neighborhood master plans really want to increase the orientation and the entrance corridor guidelines on this road front, but it doesn't exactly exist yet.

And so the Southwood residents and per the code of development are really trying to create a walkability within their own neighborhood and hence this hub around this park.

And so now I'll jump into these drawings which we've seen from Margaret's presentation.

These are the southbound first and then northbound on the entrance corridor of the building.

And then the approach into the neighborhood.

The building on the left.

and then adding that corner park render to the other three just to kind of show the hope for the building that by using a variety of materials on these faces, we are hoping to increase kind of the activity in that area and reinforce that with the design of the building.

So apartment A buildings are meant as one of two bookends to the main entry of the Southwood neighborhood.

They're designed really like I've been saying to pull the visitors into the neighborhood to that first main focal point, which is the corner park.

They're designed to try to mitigate the large scale of the building, which is kind of inherent to the economics of the multifamily building by providing bays that break it down at the scale of the townhome.

So let's see.

I guess another thing I will say about the design of the building, which I know is not fronting the entrance corridor, but it gives kind of more context for the overall thinking of the building is that it's trying to emphasize the corner park as the active hub and frames it with the buildings.

And it's meant to offer the variety of textures and layers there that point that as kind of the entrance of the building.

And so these were the architectural black line drawings just keying in the different materials.

The main ends are the kind of whitewashed Dover white, also the protruding bays from the first and second story are that same

White washed brick.

The bays that are pulled back are more of a peach colored brick.

It's Charleston, it's called.

And then on the third story of the inside bays is that Dover White, or sorry, the Arctic White hardy cement panel.

And then on this face, the front face, which is from Hickory Street, between the windows is that khaki

colored fiber cement panel, which matches very closely in color to the window frame color, which is fossil.

And the rest of the views are shown here.

So number two is actually the face that is for discussion today.

It has the cornice high at the corner, again, trying to be a book into that entry point

and then the other faces are the two that front on the park.

You'll see there that an awning comes into play that trying to again signify that area as the most public.

Also included are the views from the parking lot on either side.

The first is I guess looking kind of more south, the back of the main building on Hickory

Again, the entry points on the left and then one on the right.

And the bottom view is the back of the building from that will be visible in the winter.

The building along horizon when the trees that are in that buffer between Old Lynchburg Road and the property lose their leaves, or I guess anytime that the trees don't have their leaves.

And you'll see

some entry points there the same kind of articulation of the different phases there as well same materials and then marching around that building not visible from the entrance quarter side one the long side very similar and then on the short end also not visible from the entrance quarter is

An area of entrance point.

And so that's a summary of the building.

And here again is those main entry perspectives.

And that I think is that is the end of my presentation.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, thanks a lot.

We'll go into questions and

Start with Dade.

Sure.

Thank you for your presentation and appreciate the context about funding and unit type in terms of staff's comment about frontality and the presence of the building on the entrance corridor.

Would it affect the unit types or the approval if, for example, the the I guess the left hand side of the facade, if that I guess it's white brick

Thank you.

Thanks.

I don't.

Just thank you for your presentation.

Very well organized and legible.

Yeah, I agree.

I don't have any questions either.

Thanks a lot.

The ARB will now go into a discussion.

Sure.

I think it's a great project.

I think it's unfortunate that it kind of got caught in the arterial status.

But as far as the things we look for in our guidelines, I think it satisfies the way the building fronts.

It's not entirely in the back.

The whole parking lot is not fronting the corridor.

I think it's important to think about the dialogue between this building and the building across Hickory Street together serving as an entrance.

Also, I know we're not really commenting on the site plan, but I think the pedestrian infrastructure and kind of focus on that main street on Hickory coming in

I think really satisfies that kind of human scale and how you interact with the building.

Architecturally, I think breaking down the mass is successful.

So I think in summary, all of those things, the things we look at and we talk about a lot are all evident here.

Thanks.

I appreciate Frank's comments and I agree it's a nice project and it's been nicely expressed in terms of breaking down the scale and creating some texture and variety in the facades.

And I think like Frank, I'm certainly glad the entrance corridor status has been returned to this arterial and the existing conditions with the

The plantings, albeit outside of the applicant's control, I think mitigate the parking a little bit up front.

I think, as my question alluded, I think I'm sensitive to staff's suggestion about the frontality of the end.

And I agree they've done a very nice job of breaking things down and celebrating the corner.

I think it would be worth considering ways to make the entrance corridor facing facade a little larger and step to a different scale that's maybe more in recognizing the character of that road.

All right.

Thanks, David.

I agree with my fellow board members.

It seems like a really well done project.

And I personally don't have much of a problem with the

with the facade that faces the entrance corridor just because it's broken down, as Frank mentioned, and has a similar language to those longer side elevations, which I think as you proceed down the entrance corridor, those side elevations are actually in view probably for a longer time than that one smaller elevation.

So having said that, I think

Thank you.

Our recommendation was for approval of the building permit with those three conditions, the first one being the one considering the elevation facing entrance quarter street and the two notes to be added to the plans.

I'll just add that looking at Whitney's drawings, I can see that both of those have been added to her updated drawings.

would be best to just leave it in the action at this time.

Date or Frank, do you have any suggested modifications?

I don't have any at this time.

I don't either.

No, I don't either.

I'll second.

Alright, great.

We'll move on to our work session.

We have one work session today.

It is on the entrance corridor design guidelines addenda.

Hi everyone.

Thank you for your time and continued work and review of this project.

Today we'll be reviewing the draft entrance corridor agenda for Route 53.

Route 53 runs between Route 20 south of town and the Louisiana County line.

The corridor is fairly rural in character but contains several notable landmarks and developments that are accessed or along the way, including Monticello and Meechee Tavern.

Regarding zoning, with the exception of a short length that's zoned Monticello Historic District near the entrance to Monticello, properties along the corridor are zoned rural area.

The corridor is divided into three segments and I'll go into each of those.

It's the overflow sheet from the corridor.

So starting at the Fluvanna County line and working towards the center of the county, the first segment is called Valley Pass for the area topography and experience along the roadway.

This segment is densely forested on both sides with instances of cleared land.

When residences are visible, they're typically separated from the road with wooded areas or landscaped lawns with mature trees.

Board fencing is also a prominent feature along this segment.

This is the precedent image sheet.

You can see the wooded buffer or mature trees in all of these images, the exception of the precedent image at the bottom, which is the church building located at the easternmost end of the segment near the Flobana County line.

It's a small but prominent structure that reflects the local community history.

The second segment is named Thoroughfare after the name the road used to be known by, which is Thoroughfare Road, around the early 1900s.

This segment maintains a rural character, but with a greater proportion of agricultural fields.

Open areas are balanced with wooded backdrops or narrow wooded strips along the road.

Residences become the more prominent feature and development type along the Route 729 intersection in Nix community.

precedent images seen here.

We tried to group them a bit by subject, starting with wooded borders and then more cleared areas and what that looks like on different types of properties, cleared, agricultural, residential, and then different building types and uses.

The last segment we referred to as landmarks.

This segment is characterized by wooded borders consistent with the eastern segments of the corridor, though expansive fields and breaks in wooded borders reveal distant views to other natural landscapes.

All right, thanks a lot.

We'll start with questions.

No, I don't think so.

Super important corridor, obviously.

You mentioned the, well maybe this is a question, the Monticello view shed?

I actually didn't.

Yes, the zoning district.

Just thinking about the importance of the historic resources on this corridor and then reminded back of the time we reviewed a large solar development

I think on this corridor and some of the things we wrestled with and that actually went away because of the arterial status I believe, is that right?

Your review of that was prior to that but the

But just thinking about you know that's a

A study for maybe some of the land use or projects that we would maybe see in a corridor like this, a rural corridor.

And so thinking about the things we highlight in this addendum that maybe could guide an application, I think would be helpful.

You know, the broad vistas, the opportunities or instances where things are completely screened and what that looks like.

I know you mentioned the fence and

This corridor has a lot of the characteristics of some of the western corridors we've already looked at.

And then I'll just note one of my favorite building types in the county is the Simeon Market.

No we'll let you echo the thanks to Mariah and Margaret for this further progress.

Really appreciate actually the precedent images.

I think they're great at capturing the character.

I think like Frank I was reminded of the solar application and also I think like Frank I'm reminded of the western corridors we've studied and I guess

Not so much for this guide but I know we've talked about guideline updates and then also maybe recommendations we would like to forward to zoning or planning to consider.

I guess right now there's a solar array on 29 South that I guess is an agricultural use and so it falls outside of any kind of guidelines.

and then I think on 250 west there's some residential uses that also really encroach on any kind of buffer and so I think I just appreciate over the last decade in the county the way you know the rural character of so many of the entrance corridors is not

by any means completely eroded but there are lots of areas where it is being eroded and I guess for me personally that's a concern for corridors like this where so much of the experience arriving at the historic sites is coming through fundamentally rural experience and so I would certainly support our considering and perhaps forwarding recommendations that would help safeguard that character against the sorts of encroachments that we've already seen

No, thank you for your comments.

It's a really interesting one to realize that the approach to historic areas is really accentuated by moving through rural places that look like rural places first.

You almost get to relive the experience of a traveler.

All right.

And I guess we'll move on to other business starting with the minutes from February 28th.

Would anybody like to make a motion to approve

I'll second.

Thanks a lot.

Board members or staff, are there any other items anyone would like to discuss?

All right, if that's a no, then the next ARB meeting is scheduled for March 20th, 2023 in Lane Auditorium.

This will be an in-person meeting.

And are there any board members present who may not be able to attend that?

I should be here on the 20th.

I'm planning to attend.

All right, me too.

So I think we'll have at least three.

So this meeting is adjourned until our next meeting on March 20th by my watch at 1.40 PM.