Planning Commission Regular Meeting   3/11/2025

All righty, good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I believe we're ready to begin our deliberations for the evening.

We'll begin with a report from the tires, report to the tires.

Thank you, Chairman.

So just a couple sort of brief updates.

We have the second year housing, which consists of 780 beds.

That'll be located in two buildings.

They're at the western end of the Emmett IV corridor.

That has officially started construction.

And that's looking for a delivery in 2026.

We have Darden student housing is also currently under construction.

That's 348 beds.

That's located to the north of the Forum Hotel, and it's adjacent to the existing Darden parking garage.

And so that will be also a 2026 delivery.

And then we have the, now going to kind of a parking project updates, the Fontaine parking garage is proceeding its construction on schedule.

It'll open this fall and it'll add over 1200 parking spaces for both clinic use and university commuters.

The Northgrounds parking garage can start construction, so that is over

The Northwest Corner of Massey and Copely Roads, where the Copely Hill Housing One was, so that construction is underway.

That's going to bring a thousand spaces, and that'll be completed in 2026.

The hospital tower is in pre-construction phases, so that was completed back in advance of

The pandemic, but there are three floors that were left kind of shelled, so those will be built out with construction starting next year.

And then the Center for the Arts, probably seen some news on that, that is returning to the Board of Visitors for approval in June.

There's ongoing conversations between our consultant team, the Board, and leadership just to balance the programmatic needs for that building and to create a contextually sensitive architectural envelope at that site.

More on that as we get closer to that June meeting.

Let's see.

I've mainly been doing tree commission.

I don't think I've recorded on that for a while.

It's a very awesome passionate group and they gave a head of work session with City Council to deliver the state of the tree canopy and

and I can forward that to you all and there was a really good discussion.

And then the second part was talking about stormwater management fees and how to just an idea or a couple ideas of how to recalculate that to be better for homeowners versus commercial parking lots.

But I can send you the minutes so that would be more detailed.

Some legislation I worked on inspired by our Charlottesville Plans Together process has passed both Chambers and Richmond and await signature from the Governor.

The bill is HB 2153 Comprehensive Plan Housing Development by Nonprofit Organizations.

And broadly, it eases the way for other localities to follow us in streamlining their comprehensive plan, housing strategies, and zoning.

To allow the kinds of successful non-profit housing efforts, we have approved and funded here.

This also offers administrative support from the state to get this done, which many smaller localities would benefit from.

That is a big deal.

Let's see.

The hack has not met in 2025.

We had a long story on January, February was weather.

So, however, the CAF committee met a whole lot and that is now done and I think going to city council on 17th.

and we managed to plow through that short version, $1.6 million ask.

Well, $823,000 on the Sticks and Bricks side, 1.3 ask, $575,000 was available for the 1.6 ask, on the hops side, the hops, which is the housing operations, not Sticks and Bricks.

So that was a pretty tough road, but to

Be very direct, the group did a very good job of getting through that and there were a lot of different perspectives and we came up with what we thought was a pretty nuanced

way of moving forward.

CDBG is scheduled to meet a lot in March.

I do not have the summary yet.

I have all of the applications.

That is this weekend's project.

And I'll let you know on that.

Do you have any idea what the funding is going to look like?

I do.

All the cuts and everything.

And to be blunt, I guess we might be proceeding on the extraordinary assumption that funding will be there.

I don't know.

So there's that.

Thomas Jefferson Planning District has met.

We did a lot of work on rural transportation and development of strategic plans surrounding that, of which is of not direct interest to us here, just academic interest.

And the housing partnership, the Regional Housing Partnerships Annual Summit is at the end of this week.

If you want to go, too bad they're sold out.

Let's see, I had a couple of meetings over the past couple of months.

First, we had MPO Tech.

We received, or we talked about at least the smart scale scores that came out.

The short answer is we didn't get anything.

The one project in our region that was funded is called the 250 Rulkin Road Peter Jefferson Parkway Bundle.

It does add a few blocks of sidewalks along 250 and some pedestrian crossings.

It also includes some like median hardening so you won't be able to turn left across the median and it'll change the traffic flow over by Martha Jefferson.

Another interesting piece of news related to that is that because of all of the recent snow and hurricane stuff, VDOT is moving over a billion dollars in the six year improvement plan from construction to operations because of all the increased costs.

So it's possible that even fewer smart scale projects are funded

So what do you mean by operations?

Yeah and I think also you know maintenance stuff like I know Hurricane Helene led to a whole bunch of roads being washed out and had to be repaired that sort of thing.

That's supposed to construction is like new construction projects.

Then we also, that was pretty depressing on the smart scale, also it turned out the amount of money given to the entire district for this grant program was more, or sorry, was less than the budgeted cost for some of the applications we submitted.

So we will have to work on improving that process in future cycles to submit better applications.

also worth noting that the amount in SmartScale as a whole has now kind of leveled off from what had been a very high level of funding in the first two years because of the way they phased in the gas taxes that led to increased funding because the six year improvement plan

Everything gets added on at the end.

And so now we're at that six years after that first happened.

When that first happened, we were getting taxes for sort of extra years on top of what we were planning for, which was the sixth year.

So the amount in smart scales as a whole will be lower moving forward.

We did get a very interesting presentation on a smart intersection project that VDOT is doing in conjunction with the Innovation and Technology Transportation Fund

or rather the Virginia Transportation Research Council mission is doing it in partnership with VDOT where they will be installing effectively cameras at a number of four intersections around town, all in the county.

where they will be trying to measure pedestrian counts of vehicle counts, but also find near misses.

So right now, a lot of our safety needs are based on crash data, but crashes are fairly low frequency.

If you can add near misses and see when those happen, you can get a much more detailed understanding about potential safety issues before crashes happen.

So I think the ones they have in mind right now are Riva29, Old Ivy, Alderman and McCormick, and one more that does not immediately come to mind.

Additionally, we had a Lupec meeting.

which was also on transportation.

A number of projects are going to construction soon, very soon in fact.

So the Crozations out there will be happy that their 242.50 roundabout is going to construction first I think but later this year Fontaine work will start and so that will be the intersection reconfiguration or the interchange reconfiguration rather to

That's what became of what was the displaced left turn project.

But also now the city's Fontaine streetscape project is now being managed by VDOT and is part of that bundle.

And then they'll be closing the left turn off of 29, or from 29 to 64 West to funnel that traffic through the Fontaine intersection.

I think that is about it.

So from the last two months on the BAR of interest to the Plaint Commission, we approve the demolition of the Violet Crown Cinema, 200 West Main.

And just to clarify, because there's been some media and the BAR has been getting a number of emails about that.

The BAR does not tell anybody what to do.

We don't control private property.

We are asking permission to do certain things.

And we say whether it meets our guidelines or not.

And this was one thing that

There is no way in our guidelines that we could have denied this demolition.

We did condition it.

They will have to get a approved building permit for a new building before they can tear down the existing one.

That's been something that we've been conditioning a lot of demolitions on to prevent having just a big open site for forever, basically.

We looked at 218 West Market, which is the proposed hotel where the artful lodger is under the roof.

I get this mixed up.

That doesn't even exist anymore.

Artful lodger.

Yes.

Sorry.

So the applicant made a number of changes that are some really good changes to the massing of the project, but still we've asked them to work more on the materiality.

It's still a very large E-Fist building, and a six-storey E-Fist building downtown doesn't necessarily meet our guidelines.

We also looked at

Oh, 1000 Wharton Street, which is the UVA's affordable housing project in the 10th and Page neighborhood.

That building is

It's only six stories, but its footprint is very, very large.

And we have been working with them to try and find a way to make the Workland Street elevation not as long and monotonous as it is.

So there's still some work that they're going to be doing on that.

But fortunately, they are able to proceed with their tax credit application without getting BAR approval.

So we can continue to work on this while the project proceeds.

So we shouldn't be slowing anything down through this extending out this discussion with them.

So the Wharton Street proposal managed by UVA Foundation did make it to the BZA and what they really wanted to do is just to get a variation on the entrance spacing to make that work and it was granted.

The other thing I've been working on is Parks and Rec and you guys are going to hear a lot about that tonight so I won't walk you through that but I will congratulate the Parks and Rec team and the consultants and to a lesser degree but still they did a lot of put a lot of work in the advisory board on getting us to the point where we're ready to present this to this body and then to counsel next week I believe and then again after that

Ms.

Sure, it will be somewhat a limited report.

We're glad to see everybody again.

Thank you for working out this special meeting that allowed us to keep a couple items going forward and we're glad that we were able to reschedule the other items and get those taken care of.

We don't have a work session scheduled for March, but we're gearing up for a work session season, so keep that in mind.

I will note that we have two hearings scheduled for next April, or for April next month.

So the CDBG is planning to come forward and as we're working with them, I'll just note because I've been working with Anthony on this, we're advertising it such that it provides for what the funding was last year and then they're moving forward

in that manner until they're given direction to do something different.

So we'll just have to wait and see where that lands.

And then we have a request for a special use permit for bed and breakfast.

And this will be our first special use permit for an actual use in a very long time.

Mr. Chair, just a note for the minutes and to correct the record, the sticks and bricks portion, funding ask was about $8.50, funding available was about $8.50.

Now, sorry, 1.6 and $8.50, 50%.

Sorry.

Got it.

and the people who are out there watching on Zoom or people in the audience to talk to us a little bit about the work that we do.

When I ask you anything that we do that you want to talk about, do that except for the Parks and Rec piece.

We're going to do that separately.

We're going to have a separate hearing for Parks and Rec.

So Ms.

Critchley, would you

It's at six o'clock, is it not?

Oh, gotcha.

We got a public hearing.

All right.

So this is the opportunity for matters from the public.

And as the chair has noted, this is for any item that you would like to speak to the commission about, except for our public hearing item for this evening, which will

come after the six o'clock hour.

It's an opportunity to come forward.

You have three minutes to speak.

What we will do is we'll ask our in-person audience.

If we have any interested speakers, we'll start there and then we'll move to our virtual audience.

We'll alternate back and forth until we have no more speakers and at that point in time I'll turn it back over to the chair.

So I'll start with our in-person.

Do we have anyone interested in speaking on an item that is not the Parks and Recreation Plan?

All right, I see none at this point in time.

I'm going to go to our virtual audience.

Anyone in our virtual audience, if you're interested in speaking, please raise your hand in the application.

If you were to be on a telephone, you will hit star nine, which will raise your hand in the application.

At this point, we have no raised hands there.

I'm going to go back and forth.

one time each and see how we're doing.

Again, this is an opportunity for speaking to the Commission on any item except for our Planning Commission item.

If we have any in-person speakers.

All right, and our virtual audience.

All right, we're good.

The matters of the public is done.

Let's talk a little bit about the consent agenda.

Ms.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposition?

Any abstentions?

Ms.

Creasy, the consent agenda is approved.

Ms.

OK.

The commission will be in recess until 6 o'clock.

Is that clock right?

Long recess

Alrighty, we will continue our meeting and we'll begin with the Parks and Rec staff report.

Once again, thank you so much, Chair, Vice Chair and Commissioners.

I'm Rihanna Anthony, the Parks and Recreation Director.

I will be presenting to you our Parks and Rec components of master plan.

Before I get started, just would like to say a big thank you to the community.

The community came out.

They are really, really invested in the beautiful parks and recreation amenities that we do offer in the city.

So I think that's a great asset.

Number two, I'd like to thank our staff.

Our staff did a wonderful job.

So hats off to all the staff that was involved.

It took us, I think we were at council in October of 2023.

And now it's 2025.

It's a long process.

So I just want to say thank you so much.

Before I introduce our consultant, again, this is a comprehensive muscle planning.

It is a guide.

It's a roadmap with community priorities in mind and foremost, their priorities, not staff's priorities.

Not commissions priorities, but community priorities.

And we use our professional guidance in order to put a strategic plan together for the next 10 years.

So our journey, our journey started out with the community to our advisory board last month.

And now we, before the planning commission,

Once we get through the planning commission, we'll be going to a last stop at City Council.

So on that note, I'd like to introduce Mike, our principal consultant from PROS Consulting, and he will do a short presentation and also introduce himself.

Thanks folks, hopefully everybody can hear me.

I am Mike Svets, Principal with Pro's Consulting, as some of you know, recovering Parks and Recreation Director as well.

And so tonight I just kind of wanted to provide an overview of the

The larger chunks of the master plan process as well as, you know, use this opportunity to respond to some of the comments that were made at the advisory board last month.

So again, I won't read the agenda through you.

I know you all have the master plan and you have seen this PowerPoint as well.

So next slide.

First thing we kind of want to talk about and be clear on is that what this master plan process was, it is all-encompassing as Rion had said, and one of the things that we really tried to work through was to really understand implementation on the front end and throughout the process.

We didn't wait to discuss implementation until the very end because we wanted to make sure that this was a realistic, implementable, and financially sustainable plan.

A couple of key components.

It is a 10-year planning horizon.

It is based on City of Charlottesville resident need, unmet need and importance as it relates to experiences and opportunities desired.

And the plan focuses on investment and reinvestment in the city owned and or co-owned parks and facilities, primarily within the City of Charlottesville's borders.

Long story short, this is the city of Charlottesville centric plan.

We certainly did look at other planning efforts, but we are not making recommendations at a regional level, whether it be a planning commission district level or whether it be even Albemarle County.

This is really focused on the city of Charlottesville.

Next slide.

So, as mentioned, there is alignment with other current plans and policies from the urban forest management plan that's approximately 16 years old through some of the plans that were done right before COVID, the, you know, bike-ped greenways plan by Thomson Jefferson Plan, district commission, climate goals, the COMP plan, which I know this is going to be a key part of updating the Rivanna River corridor plan.

three notch trail master plan and then a bunch of other kind of internal plans as well city council strategic plan, climate action plan visitors bureau tourism plan downtown mall tree plan and then the the cities of Charlottesville's latest capital improvement plan next slide

So, you know, we really tried to focus this on a whole list that can continue its engagement.

Some master plan efforts really focus on just engaging the community on the key finding side of the equation the first third, but we really made a concerted effort to keep the community in the loop and gather their feedback along the way.

We really focused on in-person engagement, complimented that with surveys as well as opportunities for people to provide continuous feedback using the project website.

Next slide.

This just kind of gives you a quick summary of the in-person engagement in a slide that you probably cannot read but long story short there's about 33 different engagement opportunities along the way and that range that started all the way from back in November of 2023

and still obviously continuing with tonight's public hearing as well as the City Council meeting next week.

We had over 2,400, almost 2,500 different participants.

I don't want to say unique participants, but different touch points with people along the way.

And this is just the in-person side of the equation.

Next slide.

and so on.

South of Charlottesville and typically in communities that we don't hear from.

And so the effort was made from a location perspective to really try to engage the community as a whole and really try to get out to people and not make everybody just come to the Parks and Recreation office on the downtown mall.

Next slide.

In terms of kind of in-person community engagement, I will say there's one thing missing from this screen, and that is increased river access.

The graphic has been updated in the master plan document.

However, in addition to increased river access, economic development through park reinvestment, reinvesting in the existing park system, continually reinvesting, shared use path system expansion, connectivity,

continued increased awareness, advocacy and outreach and sustainable funding.

These are kind of some of the key themes that came out of all of our engagement.

It certainly isn't all of the detail associated with it.

But if you had to say, what did we really hear going up and down an elevator in 30 seconds?

These are kind of some of the key components that we heard from the community as part of the in-person engagement.

Next slide.

In terms of overall community priority rankings, a couple of things to just point out.

Number one, just looking at the things that are the high priority, medium priority, low priority.

High priority means that the city of Charlottesville residents

want the city to provide more of those things, whether it be space and place or programs and services, yesterday.

In other words, if you had budget cuts or if you had opportunities to expand your budget, it's going to be absolutely focused on the things that are in the red category.

Medium priority kind of means you have it right-sized, but you always want to continue to evaluate it to ensure it doesn't become a high priority or drop into the low priority.

Low priority does not mean that you don't do it.

Low priority simply means that it is usually very special interest.

It is usually age specific or it's skill specific.

So you will see a lot of sports, sport fields, sport

type of programs, programs that are tied to very specific age groups in the low priority.

It does not mean that you don't do it.

It's just that you're not going to provide those services to the community as a whole.

They're going to have a very specific target market and or a very specific, very specific location in which you're going to have those.

In other words, you see golf there on the low end of the program and service assessment.

You have plenty of golfers.

You are certainly not your entire community is going to golf and or wants to golf.

And you're also pretty much going to focus your golfing efforts at Meadow Creek.

So just a couple of things in terms of comparing the high priority between programs as well as facilities and amenities.

You do see that there are more

High priority items in the facility and amenity chart than you do on the program and service.

And what this reflects is that park and recreation systems are utilized for self-directed activities as well as programs and services.

So, a really good way to kind of say this is, you know, one out of every three people in your community typically will engage in a true program or a service.

Attend a special event, go to city market, you know, participate in a performing art program, you know, participate in rolling skating at Carver.

Whereas about 80-90% of your community actually overall uses parks and recreation facilities and locations.

And that's through other, that Delta then becomes that self-directed activity as like taking a dog for a walk or walking for exercise.

So you will see that there is not a one-to-one correlation between formal program and service offerings and the space and place requirements.

And that's the distinction as to why.

Next slide.

So we'll probably need to zoom back this one back out.

So just really quickly, we put together three slides that speak to the level of service.

The first one is the old standby, which is how much do you have of any one thing based on your population?

And this is usually measured in terms of park acreage per 1,000 folks.

The national median for, you know, the median service level for agencies of Charlottesville size about 50,000 folks, it's about 10.2 acres per 1,000

Charlottesville has 49 acres per 1,000 folks.

So almost five times the four times, four to five times greater than what we typically see in park systems on which you're servicing 50,000 folks.

You can also see that in terms of amenities and facilities, Charlottesville also provides a greater level of service than the national average.

Pure population perspective.

Next slide.

Next slide kind of gets into, do you have equitable access to your two parks through what we are referring to as a 10 minute walk?

84% of Charlottesville residents live within a 10 minute walk of a park.

You compare this to an urban community, which Charlottesville very much is, that national median is 55%.

So the walkability of the community to get to parks is significantly higher than what we see for other communities across the country.

That said, we're not necessarily resting on our laurels.

We want to improve upon that, which is why we did the connectivity analysis associated with this plan, which I'll talk to in just a second.

Next slide.

one other level

the study that had been done previously.

This plan does not go into depth to identify opportunities for improvement because they think that is certainly a much larger effort that would need to be done jointly with the county, especially since access points currently do exist out in the county.

And there are other potential access points that would take place out at Darden-Tow as well.

But long story short, there's only four different boat launches along the entire Rivanna River, starting up at Ivy Creek Natural Area and running back then down towards Woollen Mills.

There are, however, unfortunately, a bunch of informal access points that people have made on their own, and this creates really significant safety issues.

that really need to be addressed.

So we're recognizing that increased river access is important.

And what we're trying to do as part of this plan is elevate the need to really dive into that studying much further at a, what we would kind of refer to this as almost a very site specific process.

And so that is the recommendation as part of this plan.

Next slide.

In terms of connectivity goals, first things first, we're really talking about shared use paths.

So what is a shared use path and how does that differentiate, say, between that and the Rivanna trails?

Shared use paths are accessible paved or stone dust

for lack of a better phrase, trails.

They're intended to be utilized by different folks, people that walk, people that jog, people that ride bikes, people that skate, people that use scooters.

The idea is to ensure that they are multi-use in nature

They serve both opportunities for recreation as well as connectivity and they truly are accessible to multiple modes of transportation.

They are also not intended to be utilized by any motorized vehicles.

that does not include e-bikes, but what I mean by that is trucks, cars, anything powered by a quote unquote motor.

The opportunities that we really tried to dive into on this connectivity was understand working with Chris where those shared use path segments needed to be updated, where the opportunity was to expand the system as well as to prioritize this.

So next slide.

I don't want to get into too much detail, but I think you can see here that there are proposed shared use paths upwards of an additional, I want to say, 20-some different segments.

22, 23 different segments that would add about 12 miles of additional shared youth paths in the system.

How does that measure against today?

Today is probably somewhere around eight to nine miles.

So it would be more than doubling the shared youth path system that exists in the city today.

There is an entire chapter on this and I'm happy to address any questions that you may have.

But we knew going into this project that this was going to be not an issue, but certainly something that came out of the community's need process.

And so we wanted to get out in front of it and ensure that this was a part of the overall master plan scope.

Next slide.

In terms of cost estimating for capital improvements, we have identified this in three specific buckets.

One is sustainable, which is just life cycle replacement.

The second one is expanded services, which is about reinvesting in existing parks that go beyond just replacing a playground for our playground.

And visionary is such things as adding to the shared use pallet system.

One specific note of this is that the recommendations that we're making as it relates to the cost estimating for capital improvements is for fiscal year 2627.

through fiscal year 3435.

So we are not double counting and we are not including projects in this cost estimating plan that are in the current capital improvement budget.

That is a part of the city's next budget process, which will be adopted here in the next month or so.

So all of the projects that are currently slated to be funded and incorporated the next, shall we say, the next 18, 16 to 18 months are not included in this plan.

This plan is intended to guide the future development of the capital improvement plan that Parks and Recreation puts together.

Next slide.

So a couple of things just really quickly, we did ask a very specific question on the survey about their preferred, the communities preferred level of additional tax rate, financial support for the improvement of parks and recreation services.

The long story short of this is that in looking at the lighter blue and the gray shaded

sections of the pie, that basically is indicating to you that 67% or two out of every three households in the community are willing to add one cent, a minimum of one cent or two, the additional tax rate for the improvement of parks and recreation services.

A key here is to recognize that only 14% of your community supported no additional tax rate for Parks and Rec.

So strong support and advocacy for Parks and Rec in terms of people putting their money where their mouth is.

Next slide.

In terms of the cost estimating approach, the sustainable bucket is about 16 million expand services, 17 million visionary projects of which 44 is 44 million for a grand total of 78 million over the course of 10 years.

The new paved trails and investment in the framework plan parks

Washington Park, Tonsler Court Square, as well as Market Street Park, make up about a 40% of the total cost estimating plan.

So just developing all of the new shared use paths over the next 10 years, as well as the reinvestment in the framework plans, parks, make up 40% of that total.

One thing to recognize is that the grand total is 78 million

It is not intended that that 78 million would be fully funded by City of Charlottesville taxpayers.

There are many funding sources as identified in the master plan.

including several granting opportunities in particular for shared use paths.

So though we are saying that this is 78 million, it is not the city, it's not you all adopting a 78 million dollar cost estimating plan or council.

It is just reflecting the total dollar amount including escalation factors over the next 10 years for the improvements identified in the plan.

Next slide.

So the overall goals, again, there's a lot more detail in the master plan, safe, accessible public spaces, meaningful recreation programs and events, prioritizing health equity across the city, ensuring that the department has a diverse and dynamic workforce

to carry out the residents' wishes and needs, identifying and continuing to build innovative and lasting partnerships.

Charlottesville Parks and Recreation can be a conduit for so many recreational opportunities that it also doesn't have to do it all itself.

Environmentally sustainable park ecosystem, clearly and transparently communicating with the community

and making sure that we have a financially sustainable and resilient operation.

Next slide.

So lastly, all of these things are in the master plan and then some.

But again, just kind of the key is to recognize 10 year planning horizon tied to Charlottesville City residents and investment and reinvestment in city owned and or co-owned spaces and places.

We feel this is very realistic.

We feel it's very implementable.

And we do recognize the need for it to be financially sustainable.

No specific comments.

Just appreciate all the hard work and the collaboration with the community.

Thank you.

I echo that.

I was once on the Parks and Rec Board years ago when we were doing the pool at Mead Park.

I love all of the connectivity.

I really feel like that's important.

And as a resident, my kids are teenagers now, but have been using the programs all through, and now the teenager works for Parks and Rec.

So really great place for youth to get

not only programming, but jobs and be part of the city.

Yeah, I don't really have much.

I sent in a question via e-mailer today about the three buckets of funding.

I think it was

kind of sustaining what we have expanding and visionary and sort of how that fits in with the capital improvement budget.

And I think the answer was that, you know, the visionary and expanded projects are not included in any capital improvement plans.

So, you know,

look forward to considering those projects when they come to us in future years.

One thing I will say is that was really interesting survey result on people's willingness to, you know, stomach attacks increase for parks.

And I think just personally speaking, and others might feel the same way, when I know what the money is doing, you know, like I'm really happy for tax money to go to parks and transportation and all those things.

And I wonder if it's something that the city should consider

You know, more transparency or just letting people know, hey, you paid your tax bill this year.

This is where the money went.

I know other cities do that, but just I'm going to pop them.

Very interesting.

Congratulations on all the good efforts.

In terms of public outreach, did you collect demographic information?

And if so, did you find interesting differences between groups?

So the question on the table is regarding demographic information.

So through this statistically valid survey, we have provided cross tabulation information based on different household types.

So exactly kind of what you're referring to.

Households that have kids that are zero to nine have very different needs than say an adult between the ages of 18 and 25.

So we did do cross tabulation based on different household types, and we also did cross tabulation based on geography.

There were some significant, obviously, differences between young families with kids zero to nine and what they want versus, say, even university students or emptiness middle-agers or even

and the senior population.

The lists are much longer for the household types.

And we also found some significant differences in terms of geography.

There were a lot of consistency, whether it be programs and services or facility amenities,

requested across the city as a whole in every geography.

But there definitely were some additional amenities and or facilities and programs and services requested say from the 10th of page area or as well as Rose Hill, even Saybridge Street.

So that information has been incorporated into the overall program and service.

And it was very much contemplated and a part of our decision making as we went through and made very specific recommendations on a park-by-park basis.

So understanding where that park is, understanding who that park is serving, understanding what that park could do,

in terms of providing a different kind of experience.

But we were also very mindful of not making sure that we did the whole square peg and around hole kind of thing.

A park can still, based on its location, its geography, its access points, its size, its topography, can only handle so much of improvement.

We did utilize that information in that way.

In terms of the in-person engagement, we did not collect demographic information, but that is also, it's not something that we typically do as part of the in-person engagement, but the effort was made to recognize that we wanted to reach different people, which is why we took the show on the road, so to speak,

One related question.

I see the word equity in this quite a bit, which I'm pleased to see.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

That was at the table as part of the steering committee and very much actually helped to inform the, in particular, the criteria that went into prioritizing the connectivity analysis.

Thank you.

I think I have two questions, one of which was inspired by my colleague's question.

I note that when we're breaking down some of the demographics here, and this is persnickety and maybe means nothing at all, but I guess I'm just curious about it.

We're defining millennials as people born up to 1999.

in this, and then I noted that the Sports and Fitness Industry Association's participation report also uses that methodology.

Is that some peculiarity of this part of the statistical world, or did something happen that I didn't notice at a millennial age, or was it this deliberate or just incidental?

I would say that we have tapped into how others have defined that, without I would guess say, without necessarily

How do I say it?

Questioning it, so to speak.

We have really tried to utilize consistency across the board in terms of defining different generations.

I think of most importance for us as part of this plan

We feel like the national trend information is great and I think it's awesome for people to know what people like to do at different demographics.

But I also think it's more critically important for us to hone in on

and so on.

how people have to live their lives.

Well, I did read through their sports fitness and leisure report, and that's a huge pile of data.

So that's what they used.

We'll go along for the ride, I guess.

The other question I've got, it has to do with, and this may fall under implementation, but the master plan calls for an administrative reorganization of the department.

and essentially splitting it into six divisions.

And my question in terms of best practices, organizational effectiveness and number of people, how deep a dive did you and the department take into that?

Yeah, so it was a deep dive with the department.

Yeah, we, all of the information, I can show you where we, I think there is an information of where we started in there from an organizational functionality perspective and where we ended up.

That was a really big lift, I think Rionne kind of mentioned

the staff's input and staff's contributions.

There was a lot of conversation to make sure that we got that right because it's really important not just to understand where your inefficiencies and ineffectiveness are now, but also if you don't get that right going forward, it's going to be that much harder for you to implement a master plan.

Yeah, exactly what Mike said.

We have to really, and we look through the lens of not individuals, we look through the functions.

So once we remove individuals, it can get very sticky.

But we look through the function.

What does the community expect from us?

And we have to pivot, and we have to look exactly the need.

Like an example, within the

In the recommendations, the community wants more events.

We don't have an event coordinator at all.

So we are looking into that events further without Mike's help with this, but we have to look deeply to figure out, okay, this is what the community wants.

So we have to pivot and look at our functions.

So I guess it's really when you start

Putting together an implementation strategy that the nuts and bolts of what you're actually going to do, and in what order, is going to come forward.

Because right now, you don't know what you don't know, I guess, at this point.

Yeah, that's correct.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, that's correct.

So would that have implications for an expanded staff?

I think that there's some pretty direct statements here about expanding the staff capacity.

So when we worked on this plan, even in this physical year, we made a recommendation under the above, close to three or four positions.

within the cycle.

Number one, most importantly, we had a major need in terms of cleaning our parks.

That was one of the complaints.

We only have three people that clean all our parks within Charlottesville.

And we requested for FTE for that.

The other thing too is if you look at the master plan calling for

Reinvestment, what does that mean?

Means that our facilities are crumbling.

We don't have a dedicated project manager within Pox and Wack.

So we called that out.

And hopefully through the budget process, again, it just started.

Hopefully we will get that.

Again, we have a young gentleman by the name of Chris Kenzie.

He started out with a very little mileage of trails, and now, almost 18 years, we have a robust trail system, but it's still a department of one.

How are we maintaining our trails?

So we're really focusing on infrastructure.

How do we maintain our infrastructure?

And those are our focuses.

The other position was an inclusion coordinator.

We have to be inclusive.

We are Parks and Recreation Department, and unfortunately we're not there yet.

There's going to be a whole other look at staffing and how that's structured.

I mean, it's not really a table of organization.

We've got these six divisions that we basically need to split things up into.

But you haven't quite warmed up that sort of the next set of steps.

First off, yeah, thanks for all the work you guys have done on this.

It's quite thorough.

First, I have a quick technical question.

If we could jump back to the slide on levels of service, the one with, you know, amounts per population.

It is different because we have to update this slide.

So there were a couple of things that have been some moving parts just even over the last week or so in terms of acreage.

And so there were just some things that had to kind of get moved around.

I think what we ended up doing is reducing some of the acreage

Yeah, it seems like the top line population is different and then

in the plan has kind of inconsistently applied to the numbers.

I think there are probably a couple other charts similarly that have errors like this.

I think there's one that says like the Ridge Street neighborhood has one tenth of the population density, at least in 2034, then like Greenbrier and Barracks rugby.

So if you guys could just do a sweep through that and catch those settlers.

Or I can send a follow-up email with a few small things as well.

My other question is a little bit broader.

So I was excited to see all the charities' paths proposed in the plan.

I was a little surprised.

I attended the open house at Carver Rec last fall, and I don't remember hearing about them then.

But looking at the map,

It seems that they're concentrated, I mean, they're all important, you know, links within the city into parks, but none of them touch the proposed three notch trail, which I'm sure you know, the county got a two million plus grant from the federal government to start planning

up to the city limits.

And in other parts of the state, similar, you know, very long trails have kind of become the kind of recreational focal point of the trail system and really of the park system.

Certainly.

This is a park plan, and we work a lot with transportation, Sophranic.

It needs to be Amanda Ponzi and Ben.

I'm actually the founding member of the Three Nights Trail.

I gave it the name.

So I'm the one trying to build it back to Richmond now that the county's going west.

So that's all wonderful.

Most of it coming into the city would be Wolham Mills up the coal tower to the downtown mall, and then it's on street as we're looking at it because there's just no

Unless the railroad went out of business, which would be, I like trains, but that would make the trail a lot easier.

You have to get out to Ivy Road, and you're basically using Westman University and Ivy with improvements on that side.

So those, yes, is the answer.

And most of that's going to be on the Public Works traffic engineering side, but we do want to make sure as much is as comfortable as possible, because the capital trail is great.

Getting away from traffic is great.

That may not always be possible here to get all linked together.

I'm glad they're going west.

Now I just have to build it back to the flood zone.

The only other thing I would mention is that the key to the shared youth path system is that it's off-road.

So, to Chris's point, all of these segments that have been identified, we can pull off the road.

They're not sidewalks or sharing sidewalks.

They're not sharing bike lanes or roads.

These are true off-road shared path connections.

Great.

So, I'm...

This question is kind of coming from my own ignorance about, I noticed in the master plan document, you've got, I was looking at your SWAT analysis, you've got a list of threats, and all the threats tend to deal with duplicate services from private and non-profit organizations.

And I guess I was wondering, I mean, you've mentioned partnerships, I think in your last slide that you had up there, there were some of our partnerships, and there's

I feel like I saw it later on in this document, but I guess I'm curious about are these threats or are they opportunities or how is the city dealing with or what's the thought process for dealing with the duplicate services that are out there?

It's an excellent question if I could jump in and then I'm sure somebody from staff will want to jump in.

But I think it's recognizing, truly recognizing the role that the city plays in terms of providing direct services.

In other words, what can we do with the taxpayer dollars that were allocated that we are going to do in-house?

Ourselves, it's going to be our direct

your conduit to the community.

And then what are the other things that we need to recognize that we have wonderful spaces and places that we can facilitate the utilization of programs and services?

And that's where I think the understanding of where the role and responsibility of who does what is exceptionally important.

The prioritization of programs and services, the prioritization of spaces and places helps us to define really what the city in part should be tapped into and what they should be doing versus how you facilitate those partnerships.

Having been the director of Charlottesville a number of, gosh, a couple decades ago now, there is significant opportunities for partnerships.

And there's no possible way the City of Charlottesville will ever have enough staff capacity and or resources to do it all themselves.

So when you talk about like the implementation side of the equation,

This is where we start to put, okay, what are we going to do as a city versus what are we going to facilitate on behalf of somebody else who, A, may have more resources, B, may have a greater level of subject matter expertise to implement and or see both.

Yeah, as Mike mentioned, when we went through this exercise, we had to recognize that ten years ago there was a few different institutions around.

But now we have everything from soccer to volleyball and we have to ask ourselves the question as a city department, what is our role to play within the community?

We are recruiters.

We are introductions to folks to go to these different clubs.

At the same time, we also have to recognize we have one asset and that is space.

So how do we utilize and monopolize our partnerships?

And we are weak with partnerships in the department.

And that's one area that is a great opportunity

Yeah, so one of the things I want to kind of just bring folks' attention to is in the full master plan documented in the appendices is the full statistically valid survey.

One of the very first questions that we asked as part of that survey is who does the city of Charlottesville use for recreation sports activities?

The number one is actually Albemarle County

63% of the City of Charlottesville residents at some point over the course of a year tap into what Albemarle County offers.

Another 58% of the community taps into Virginia State Parks.

Charlottesville Parks and Rec is 37%.

And so as much as we would love to think that the Parks and Recreation Department is the number one and or sole provider of what people tap into, it's third on the list.

And so I think it starts to give you an understanding of kind of where you sit in terms of the market.

in terms of being a service provider, but also who those other potential partners are, in particular Albemarle County, Virginia State Parks that we can tap into.

And taking it a step further and just kind of connecting some of those dots,

Charlottesville doesn't have great significant opportunities within its borders, within its existing park system to add outdoor recreation spaces, add, you know, natural open spaces.

But that's also really, really high on the list of priorities that your community wants.

So how do you facilitate that?

You facilitate that through partnerships with the county and or Virginia State Parks as a starting point.

So that's where that kind of partnership thing comes into play.

That always necessarily feeling like we've got to find our space in our park to make this happen.

I'm glad you brought up partnerships and I can't get my internet to work because I can't find the full master plan.

So I guess I just wanted to encourage more of that.

When I was on the public housing board, there were various

Reasons, or you know, things going on between, you know, does Parks and Rec run this after school program in West Hampton?

Do they do this, or that, you know, and there's so much to work out, but that could be very much, I don't, I can't see the master plan, so I don't want to, but just that, that could be a whole person's job.

I know

the city, the city schools, those playgrounds, those fields.

And to also encourage any new developments with perhaps these large developments, I'm thinking Friendship Court.

I know there's a discussion about a park coming in there, West Haven being redeveloped.

But some of these really large redevelopments, maybe there's partnerships

there to bring in some activities.

I don't know that it would be ownership of the park, but it does seem like we have all of these kind of large institutions working, you know, in the same populations.

And maybe that's where sometimes we miss some of the residents because we just can't kind of get the partnership to work well.

But I think

It's all there, like you're saying.

We have so much support.

And maybe that's part of the problem.

We just have a lot of very active people running all of these organizations.

But I do, since you put that all in perspective, of course, if we're going to look at the mountains, we're going to go to the county park.

I mean, I think it all has to work together.

Something that comes up whenever I speak with city employees is not just headcount, but space.

To do the work right, you need space to do the work.

You're talking about physical space for human beings to do their jobs.

So space is always a good opportunity for Parks and Rec.

It's number one.

It is finding

unique opportunities in order to utilize space.

And again, I always go back to partnerships.

In some housing authorities, they have open spaces, but it's underutilized.

So I have to look through those opportunities as well.

Also looking at opportunities is looking at our schools, which we use schools for basketball programs,

But we could expand that as well.

So the staff that is on board, very creative thinkers, and again, I'm just happy that we have this process in front of us.

As I mentioned again, this is our roadmap.

This will actually help us to get us to our goals that we will be setting after the master plan gets adopted.

We'll do some goal settings and prioritization.

So at least we are taking chunks out of the master plan, year-to-year chunks, five-year plan, and then ten-year plan on how to achieve those things.

Once again, the leader of the advisory board is with us.

Good evening Ned Mickey.

I've been on the Parks and Rec Board a very long time, and we've been waiting for this master plan for a very long time.

It's been talked about that staff wanted it, and we've kind of, in some ways, things have been on hold for it that we, well, let's talk about this, Parker, let's talk about this, and it's like, well, we need to do the whole master plan before we can really figure out where we need to put our energies.

And so we've been waiting for it a long time.

There was a couple years where they were asking for the money, didn't get the money to hire a consultant, then hired to, got the money, and then it took a year to get the bid out, to get the consultant on ground, and then it's taken a year for the consultant to put together, which was great because they really did, I think, do a great job of soliciting input, both on the ground and with individuals reaching out to various organizations that

are directly involved in getting those individuals in to talk in small settings, as well as having bigger public events where everybody's welcome and the website and the scientifically valid poll.

And so I think we were really lucky to have Mike Spetz and his team, as Mike mentioned, he was a city parks director here in Charlottesville, and I remember working with him

When he was here, a longtime member of the Rivanna Trails Foundation Board.

And so anyway, we've been waiting for this for a long time, excited that it's finally here with a lot of good information.

Hope you all will adopt it and let it move on so we can all kind of jump on board and start making it happen.

Good.

Thanks.

Yes!

Alright, so we're getting ready for our public hearing.

From a logistic standpoint, we have in-person audience, we also have attendees that are online.

Each individual had the opportunity for three minutes to speak.

We'll alternate between our in-person audience and our virtual audience.

For our virtual audience, if you're interested in speaking, you can raise your hand in the application.

If you're on the phone, you can hit star nine, which will raise your hand and then we'll call on you when it's your opportunity.

We'll start with our in-person audience.

We have a speaker.

Hi, my name is Jackie Temkin.

I'm a business owner in the city and I do a lot of volunteering in the city, technically a county resident, but most of my stuff is here and the people I support live in Charlottesville.

I have a lot of severe concerns about this report.

I think the data does not actually support many of the recommendations.

If you look through it, and I'm going to say this as I am somebody who I actually don't like pickleball.

I cannot stand it.

I am a tennis player.

I want that to be on the record.

However, you know, there's places like Tonsler Park and they're making recommendations where they're saying instead of giving more space to pickleball and tennis, which are both medium priority things,

Instead, they're adding additional sports to the courts that are there, for example.

So they're squeezing in an additional court that is supposed to happen.

And you have more people competing for the same space when it's a huge park.

You have things like the cricket pitch, which is the lowest priority.

And then there's one, that's ridiculous, like there's one chart in there that says 0% of households have the preference for having cricket available to them.

So I don't understand.

Why?

Some of these recommendations are, oh, let's put in a cricket pitch when it's like there's an insane amount of demand for pickleball and other kinds of sports.

Another issue I have is with the demographics is that it does not adjust gender inequalities to current sports offerings.

Right now, there's a huge problem with partnerships supporting only baseball, basically.

There are very few, if any, other girls programs.

I represent one program through the USDA that does

It's called Girls Will the Court, and it's supposed to be a girl program.

We have consistently had issues trying to reserve courts because there's not enough.

The Covenant school books, almost all the courts up at Penn Park.

We now have four courts we've used in Tonsler.

Now we're trying to get rid of those to add Futsal, which is, I don't know where that came from.

It doesn't seem to be mentioned in a lot of the data.

And you're trying to squeeze in pickleball.

So we're talking about creating partnerships and things like that, but we're not actually creating them.

We have approached Parks and Rec several times trying to get these things off the ground, providing truly free for low-income girls to get involved in sports.

And a lot of these things aren't actually addressing any of those issues.

So I would look at the data, see if it actually supports what's happening, because I don't think it really does.

And a lot of the suggested park plans

are also not really implementable.

Like on tonsiler park 2, you guys have expanded parking over that hill.

Like I think you would blow $2 million alone trying to put parking in, grading that hill.

So to me, it just doesn't really make sense.

It's not a good use of city resources and that I think a lot of the recommendations need to also support issues that are currently happening with the inequity of

Thank you All right, we'll move to our Virtual audience and see if we have any speakers

Alright, we don't have any at this time.

Good evening.

I'm Peter Kreps from the Piedmont Environmental Council.

We're located on Water Street, also Charlottesville resident.

I live on Tufton Avenue.

You received my very extensive comments that I sent to the Parks and Rec Advisory Board.

It seems like

I don't know, three weeks ago we were in this August room together and in that time really a lot of the things that I asked for did get incorporated in the plans.

I'd like to thank Mike and Breanne and the whole team for doing it.

doing those things.

The matters related to bicycling, much better, like the references to the Rivanna Trail.

I think the pathway which is working with the county is the right way to go with that.

Also, the greenways and trails section is much more complete and much better.

And I'll just say that the mic doesn't focus on what the county's doing, but I must focus on what the county's doing.

And I will say that their comp plan, which they're working on, the Parks and Rec section, is also very greenway oriented.

And although, because it's the city and the city does things the way it does, it doesn't show those county connections, but a lot of them are looking really good.

So thank you for that.

So, not asking for a lot more, not another round of changes for sure.

I'd like to provide a little more color to some of what Mike talked about.

In some of his other venues, he's spoken about the high demand for places to walk and bike safely.

You all have heard those as well, but that's reflected in the plan.

He did talk about age and to the point of gender that everybody walks.

Walking is a sport that everybody engages in, but there is

He also said in earlier venues that the quality of the facility really drives who's willing to do that.

So to the public who's wondering why we're investing in greenways so much, you put together huge demand for places to walk.

However, the Rivanna Trail, as great as it is, and we're going to preserve the Rivanna Trail as it is, is not a welcoming place for everybody.

So having greenways that are connected,

and the plan is really very focused on the south side where people are under parked and under connected.

That's a very good thing and I think it's important for the public to know.

For you all as the Planning Commission, I know that you guys think about the CIP

And as you make recommendation to council both with respect to this and in future years, I would really hope that you all get the city council to front load the funding of this plan.

It is ambitious, but we know that waiting does not make things cheaper.

All right, we'll check back in with our virtual audience.

Sorry, my virtual panel moved on me here.

All right, no additional speakers on our virtual audience at this moment, so we'll move back to our in-person audience.

Next interested speaker.

All right.

Any additional speakers in person?

Okay.

We'll check with our virtual audience one more time as well.

All right.

Right.

The public hearing is now closed.

And we can begin our deliberations.

Would you guys like to do a quick round before we begin working on the motion?

Are you ready to go with the motion and then begin on any tweaks that we want to make on the motion?

Mr. Chair, may I create a problem?

May you create a problem?

I hope not.

I'd like to ask staff to address the gender issue that was raised by the public.

Thank you.

Staff, if you would, just if you please to address the gender issues that are raised by the public.

This is not an issue that I've studied in depth about.

I did look at some of the demographics and I do realize why things like the cricket pitch is here and I do realize why things like more emphasis on soccer fields and things like that are there.

Thank you so much for addressing this.

It's a very important topic to me personally and to the department.

Again, I just want to mention the reason why we are doing this is to find our gaps and our opportunities.

And we are definitely looking to pivot and to move the department into the proper direction because with the trends

of Society Changes, our department needs to change too, and I think this is a very important part, is to change.

So we are all looking through those lenses once we get the master plan adopted so that we can really focus on our goals and our objectives.

Just in this prior few months, we have partnered with her sports, giving opportunities to our basketball program for the first time ever that the department has done.

So again, we have to do one step at a time.

And that is our focus as a department.

We are here to not, this plan is not to say we the greatest, this plan is to find our gaps.

And then also how we can improve those gaps or meet those gaps.

And again, as I mentioned again, that is important to me personally and to our department is to bridge that gap.

and just to follow up with, for example, Consular.

Again, that's a framework plan.

It is not a conceptual design.

It's not a master plan.

So if it, when it gets adopted, that means by the pleasure of the City Manager City Council, they will assign us to say, please move forward on a certain park.

We will then do a site Pacific Master Plan on this box, where we will solicit again the community, because again, it is framework.

It's just ideas.

And as the chair mentioned, our community is changing.

Our community is changing.

And I, again,

That was a few comments in the in-person that a group from Greenstone on 1st came out and said, what about us?

We're almost 9,000 Afghans living in the city of Charlottesville.

What activities are you providing for us?

And if I look at our master plan and you go through the program section, if you look at our programs, it's your typical programs, not at this, I'll be honest with you, it's not at this, but we are getting there because this identifies what we are offering, it's like an inventory.

And now we can see how we are missing this gap, we're missing that gap.

And we have to make sure that we are pivoting.

Thank you.

Just to reiterate, the shifting population, the increasing Afghan population that's mostly concentrated in our city and that's spread throughout the county, if I understand that demographic as well as I think I do.

Where were we?

You caused me a problem, but I was about to ask Mr. D'Oronzio to make a motion so we can build on it.

Chair, I have a motion.

Whereas on March 11, 2025, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on a proposed amendment to the November 15, 2021 comprehensive plan as amended after public notice as set forth within Virginia Code section 15.2-2204 to include the Parks and Recreation Master Plan as an amendment and

be it resolved that the Planning Commission recommends City Council approve the Parks and Recreation Master Plan dated January 27, 2025 as an amendment to the city's November 15, 2021 comprehensive plan as amended

So what I'd like to do is get a second, and once we get the second, then we will build on that with additional recommendations and comments and amendments.

I'll second.

Right?

We have a second.

Let's... I'm not going to go around the room because everyone may not have anything.

Just jump in if you've got something you'd like to add to amend.

Yeah, I was actually pretty satisfied with staff's answer on the three-notch trail.

All right, would you put that in an amendment?

Is this something Ms.

Yeah.

Right, so you're looking for a greater emphasis on the development of the three-notch trail, pretty much.

Is there any objection to that addition?

All right, next.

I have something that I think is entirely impractical at this time.

Therefore, I don't recommend this motion, but I just feel the need to raise the issue.

Broadly, the technology and the planning world are having a conversation about equity.

We're looking a little bit more closely about some of the words that we've been using, thinking that maybe some fit and some don't.

The word master is in this plan 181 times.

feels high.

It's an uncomfortable word.

It has some uncomfortable associations.

The technology world has backed off of that word.

The planning world is backing.

It's been about a 10-year process.

It gives us about 50 more years.

Landscape architecture and parks moving in that direction is going to be about another 70 years.

I don't think we can solve this problem here now tonight, but I want to raise the issue.

Any other additions?

Any other additions to the motion?

Going once, going twice.

Ms.

Sure.

All right.

Ms.

Rocher?

Aye.

And Mr. Mitchell?

Right.

Mr. Anthony and team, thank you.

Mr. Mickey, thank you.

You guys can hang out if you want to, but your work here is done.

Right, the next item on the agenda is a special exception permit request.

That's correct.

And I do have slides this time, so you can put those up.

So, hello everyone, Dan O'Connell, NDS Planner, and I am presenting a special exception request for Bodo's Bagels at 1418 Emmet Street, requesting a special exception permit for build to width.

So, you can go to the next slide.

So, the existing commercial property is shown on the screen.

It is currently zoned NX5 node mixed use and the COMP plan designation is urban mixed use node.

For the NX5 district, there is a setback range of between 0 and 10 feet and a bill to width requirement of 85% along the primary street, which would be Emmett Street and 65% along side streets.

So if you go to the next slide, you can see part of the development plan on the right as well as a map of the property and aerial.

So the existing commercial property does not meet any of those build-to ranges, and per our current development code on nonconformity, any new additions to the property would have to meet the build-to.

So the owner wishes to add on.

There is a existing, I think it's a trash compactor enclosure to the side of the existing property, and the owner would like to tear that down and replace it with storage shed.

and because of the bill two requirement, that would not be allowed by right.

So we are asking for a special exception for this.

Next slide is just staff recommends approval of the special exception and we did not include any conditions, recommended conditions.

This is being done in combination with a development plan and so we would verify the location of the storage shed through that plan.

Questions?

I'm not used to this.

Don't worry, please.

I was worried I'd have to recuse because of the magnitude of my financial relationship with photos, but I'm just buying the bagel, so it doesn't count.

And the last item on the agenda is yet another special exception request.

I had a commission that's right, Ben Kobe, Planner with Neighborhood Development Services.

Similarly, well, this is another special exception application that we've received at 114 East High Street for its build two requirements.

So similar to the Bodo's case, under the current build two requirements in the CX-5 zoning district, they are required to build up between zero feet and 10 feet from their front property line on an interior lot.

So since given the size of the workshop being proposed, it's not really feasible.

The applicant is here today.

There needs to be any discussion from them.

But if we go to our next slide.

That's some of the pieces already.

Detail, go to the next slide, please.

There's the proposed workshop off the rear behind the existing office space that does front onto East High Street In the area there are old residences that have been converted into a commercial use in the CX-5 zoning district So there is already sort of an existing streetscape there where not practically almost no buildings in that block in that area

do comply with the current bill two requirement.

So considering the urban mixed use corridor designation from the comprehensive plan and that there is a consideration of

respecting existing streetscapes, considering the use of the workshop being a light industrial use, which is permitted by right in that zoning district.

My name is Mike Ball, applicant here, thanks for having me.

Not much to this, this feels like kind of a glitch in the new zoning where it's a row of houses and I was on the BAR and I've always liked this row here and it's one of these areas that

It just gets weird in the new zoning how any new building right there is being told to be built within 10 feet of the street front where it's all houses up there.

So it's just an odd transition.

And I get it, this is the 100 year view, but this is the 10 to 15 year workshop.

So we're not really building for that 100 year view right now.

So it's finding a workshop in Charlottesville is nearly impossible.

We're on our eighth workshop in 15 years.

I have one question for staff.

The proposed language we have here recommends approving with the condition that the size, location and use be consistent with material submitted.

But if I understand correctly, the use is allowed by right in the zoning code.

In discussions, we sort of thought it would be prudent to sort of have that stipulation in there that it would be used as a workshop.

So if the use were to change to something that potentially we would be more interested in having closer to the street towards East High, if it were like residences or a lighter commercial use,

that we would want on that street for that 100-year sort of vision that the comprehensive plan lays out.

Okay, I guess I would make the argument that, I mean, I think if they build it and then they decide to do something different with the use later, as long as it complies with the zoning code, like what do we care?

Like it doesn't really connect with the exception to the

to the build to requirements, I guess is my point about this.

So I guess the way I'm thinking about this, if they were to convert this particular shed into ADU or something, that wouldn't be allowed with this condition.

And so if they didn't want it as a workshop forever, it would

It would have to be empty or torn down.

I mean, if anything were to be torn down, obviously they'd have to come back for a new development plan, which would

If we permit the build where it is, I think it's a little highly restrictive for us to say it must be used as a workshop.

Particularly, well, there are certain questions as to, OK, define exactly what a workshop is.

Is it still a workshop?

If it's a complete metalworking and carpentry shop for 90% of it plus a bathroom, then that's a workshop.

Storage of, I don't know, antique furniture and there's one circular saw at the front of the building, is it still a workshop?

If it's storing something else, is it still a workshop?

So I think we might be getting ourselves, we might be boxing in a little more than we want to.

What if there are economic changes for the owner and the owner wants to do something else?

10 years from now with that particular building.

So yeah, I think that's a pain point for me too.

I think we're going to grant the special exception that has to do with the streetscape and the geography and the uses in the backseat there.

Yeah, I think the other interesting thing is that the development code for non-conforming bill two does allow rear additions, so that if they were to add like a breezeway connecting this to their building, this would be allowed, right?

And so I think it probably does make sense to not necessarily restrict the use of this shed in the future, because once it's there, you know, it's there, right?

Like if they're going to open up a shop out of the back of it, it'd be nice to have it near the front of the property, but you can't move the shed.

Well, maybe you can move the shed out.

And I just want to add, as we're thinking about possible edits to the zoning code, if this ends up being something that we edit, I think a reason that this is a good exception is that there is no parking in the front yard, and there probably won't ever be parking in the front yard.

As a landscaped front yard, I think it makes it much more acceptable to receive an exception.

So I don't know if that's something that

How that language would potentially get built in, but I feel like that would be a potential reason to allow exceptions if we were to, when we start thinking about editing the zoning code.

Yeah, let's see, this is my first motion.

So I guess I would move

and I'm trying to find it on my agenda.

So I move to recommend approval of this application for a special exception permit in the CX-5 corridor mixed use five zone at 1114 East High Street to permit the construction of a studio workshop space outside of the build to requirement.

The size and location

will be consistent with the material submitted in application PL 250038 and PL 250041 dated February 14th, 2025 and February 27th, 2025 respectively.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

Ms.

Ms.

Roker.

Hi.

And Mr. Mitchell.

And that, I believe, concludes all the business that I am aware of.

Is there any new business that I'm not aware of, any other business you guys want to bring up?

Mr. Chairman, I don't have much today, except I will point out, and in the current environment, I think this is a crucial piece of information, although this will become irrelevant, because every day will be this day.

But today is the 20th anniversary of the celebration of debunking day.

It is National Debunking Day.

It is also by, I'm sure, sheer coincidence, Rupert Murdoch's birthday as well.

Is there a second?

We are adjourned.