City Council Meeting   9/9/2025

All right, hang on.

Let me do something here.

Yes, I think so.

Yours is on, right Nasser?

Try it again, Andy.

Everybody is unmuted and on loud.

Monica, is yours on?

Yeah, we'll vote.

No, I don't think if your mics aren't muted, it weren't working.

OK.

All right.

Yep.

And Amy's going downstairs to get a couple of stands, mic stands.

So we'll just have to share.

OK.

OK.

But if ours is on, we use it.

OK.

We're not able to use it, right?

All right, Andy, use this one.

Okay, we'll call the September 8, 2025 meeting of the Harrisonburg City Council to order.

We apologize for the delay.

We have just got our microphones working.

Mayor Reed is attending to a family matter now and will not be at the meeting tonight.

Vice Mayor Fleming, here.

City Manager Banks, here.

City Attorney Brown, here.

Council Member Alsadun, here.

Council Member Dent, here.

Council Member Robinson, here.

Chief Topia, here.

Okay, we'll observe a moment of silence.

If you're able to enter, please stand.

Following that, either remain standing or stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, so we do not have any special recognitions tonight.

So the next item on the agenda is our consent agenda.

Any item placed on the consent agenda shall be removed and taken up as a separate matter if so requested by any member of council.

Otherwise, all items will be voted on with one motion.

Okay, motion second.

Council Member Dent.

Aye.

Council Member Robinson.

Aye.

Okay, the consent agenda passes.

Item six, we'll begin with our public hearings.

The first item is the public hearing for the fiscal year 2024 CDBG.

Got it?

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor.

Pam, do you mind?

Thanks.

So tonight is a public hearing on the CAPR, also known as Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report that we have to prepare and send to HUD in Richmond.

Next slide, please.

This is a summary of where project spending is at the beginning of this month.

As you can see, no funding has been spent for the critical home repair project with Habitat for Humanity.

This is due to a considerable amount of change in leadership at that organization over the past 18 months.

The program structure is in place and it looks like they will be making some forward traction in the very near future.

We certainly know that that need exists in our community.

The two Parks and Recreation sidewalk projects are either underway or will be completed soon.

Otherwise, these projects do bleed from program year to program year, and we certainly expect them to be completed in the near future.

Pam, next slide.

As I mentioned tonight is a required public hearing and followed by a public comment period.

All comments are due by September 25th 2025 at 9 a.m.

They can be submitted to Ms.

Council members, we won't be voting on this tonight.

This is a public hearing, and then it will return, I guess, 15 days of comment.

That's correct.

Okay.

Well, then I will open up the public hearing.

Anyone who would like to speak, please come to the podium here.

I'll give you a name and address, and you'll have five minutes to speak.

Mr. Vice Mayor, Panagiotisianikouros, city resident.

I am here today to testify, as I have often done, that the city is not qualified for this grant, whose purpose was originally to remedy the harms of urban renewal.

In past administrations concern has been with disparate impact.

In the current administration I imagine consideration may be given to things like efficiency.

In any event we should not be using this grant to pretend that we're doing things that we're not.

Specifically, just some examples in my five minutes.

I raised a flag about the city's vision statement earlier this year.

Councilmember Robinson, I'm grateful, acknowledged my concern and dismissed it.

Subsequent to that, as I had warned, City Manager Banks used the vision statement to justify a budget which cut the schools, cut social programs, and beefed up enforcement.

Well, okay, maybe that didn't come to anything, but I have now numbers on tall grass and weed enforcement to show you how that aesthetic nuisance enforcement played out.

Aesthetic nuisance was beefed up to the equivalent of a fifth squad of HPD worth of enforcers, and this is what that looks like.

Calls have not changed much compared to previous years.

However, in the past, the majority of calls were found to be no violation found.

Under the best of times, under Christopher Perez-Leon, it was as much as two-thirds that were found to be unfounded, no violation found.

This season,

We have not tripled that, but more than doubled the rate of people being found in violation.

We're down to fewer than a quarter of people being found as no violation found.

So what this tells us is something that I've said for a very long time about this aesthetic nuisance.

If you just leave people alone,

If they have turf, they're going to keep it as turf.

If they're going to keep it as turf, they're going to cut it eventually.

The initial justification for the crackdown in 2012, I made the same case to Mr. Baugh at that time, that if you, at that time we had essentially no tall grass and weed ordinance and the concern was about two or three houses that were in foreclosure.

Okay, so

Maybe this is still nothing.

However, later in the season, we encountered something on the golf course that made us think that, no, this was really something that was going on, that this was a real rampage that the city was on.

And that was that somebody saw a baby raccoon, I told you last time, trapped on the golf course.

Now, some folks who were not accustomed to adversarial communication got a communication from Mr. Banks,

that they took to be an immediate cessation of trapping.

However, this is what Mr. Banks actually said.

He said, the conditions and upkeep of our public amenities is vital.

In other words, we value property rights and profit motives above people and planet.

And he doubles down.

The city is committed to preserving the integrity of these spaces.

And the city furthermore,

is prepared to deliberate and make decisions that might not align with the mission of causing as little impact as possible in the surrounding environment and wildlife.

but what the callers didn't understand was that he was not saying, he was saying we didn't stop immediately in the sense that a cigarette smoker stops at the end of their cigarette and then deliberately takes another.

The trapping and extermination is still going on at least as of last Saturday and I will be corrected if that is appropriate.

So what we're seeing here

is a particular way of running the city.

Now, could anybody be so petty?

Well, we have some history to feel that way.

It may not be true, but how the public is perceiving this.

Mr. Fletcher told you some things about the closing of paper alleys that were not true.

About 30 seconds.

Paper alleys were retained because I persuaded Ted Bird that asking people to maintain a paper alley that they had not planned on was not a good use of property rights.

That was the argument that won the day.

To get staff on board, we talked about the potential bicycle connectivity that could be created.

That's what was testified about.

But the real argument that was being made at the time was that those were green spaces that we got exempt from the tall grass and weed ordinance.

You can find it in the record.

So now when we say take care of public spaces,

We're talking about leaving people free to rewild that if they want to in the future so that many people around that public property can benefit.

But this is not how the city is thinking.

We're thinking of individual benefits.

So let us not whitewash that with this grant.

Anyone else for public comment related to the CDBG?

So this is related to the...

Okay.

Okay, last call for anyone else.

All right, so I'll close the public hearing for this.

We'll have 15 days of public comment and then this will return to the city council agenda after that point.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Adam Fletcher, Director of Community Development.

I have for you this evening a special use permit at 1710 Country Club Road.

It is a request within the M1 General Industrial District to allow for a restaurant, specifically section 10397 subsection 1.

And that is how we utilize the opportunities for folks to have food trucks on the same.

So in this particular case is not a brick and mortar restaurant, but a food truck operation similar to others that I've presented to you in the past.

On the screen before you, a vicinity map here on our left-hand side, the red box indicating where we are, so that's just showing where we are sort of in here in the city, on the eastern part of the city along Country Club Road, and then on the right-hand side, the zoning map.

You're looking at a couple of different zoning districts here, so the brown being the M1, which is what the subject property is zoned,

and then the orange colors are two, in this particular case, two different ones.

We have General Business on the south side of Country Club Road and then behind this property, to the north of this property, some B2C property that was rezoned recently.

That's the Divine Unity Church that rezoned from M1 to B2 conditional.

And then just page bottom here, you can pick up some different colors.

That is Tuscan Village.

That was the rezoning to allow for Tuscan Village, which is both R5 and R8.

When you look at the long term plan for this area of the city, you can see why you're picking up some residential and some opportunities for rezoning and special use permits here is because we have this particular section of Country Club Road on this side of the street designated for mixed use.

And then on the other side of the corridor, you have it planned for commercial operations.

So for the most part, this request is moving us toward being in line with the comprehensive plan.

with regard to the land use guide and then an aerial photograph of the site if you're familiar with this area being directly across the street from one of our mobile unit parks here in the city, non-conforming.

One of the other things that we talk about in the staff report won't go into a significant amount of detail, which is that the property is in the floodplain and floodway.

In fact, the entire property is impacted by that.

Just a close-up image here.

The red box is the subject property and then the hatched area of the floodplain is the floodway.

So that's the part that is the most restrictive.

The blue is the 100-year floodplain

And it was important to note this as is indicated in the staff report with regard to having the mobile component of the operation as well as their plans for seating tables and other structures.

Although completely unrelated and we continue to work with the applicant on this as we did our site evaluation, we're on the site taking a look and doing our comprehensive look.

We did find out that they had done some work to the back of the building within the floodway without proper approvals, and we're continuing to work with them to bring that into rectification for them to be in compliance.

Related to the special use permit... I was just going to ask if you could clarify or just briefly describe exactly what you mean when you say 100 year floodplain and the floodway.

Great question, yeah.

So the 100-year floodplain, I think, is the terminology that I think most people would sort of associate with when they say, oh, the property's in the floodplain.

So the floodplain is the area that is designated by FEMA for where flooding could potentially occur.

So we call it the 100-year floodplain, but it's really the 1% chance in any given year that the area could potentially flood.

So that's the area that includes the hatched area and the blue area in this image.

The floodway, which is the more restrictive area, is the area that carries the highest velocities of water when flooding typically occurs.

It's just the model that it's telling us this.

People may see more flooding, they may experience more flooding, they may see higher velocities of waters.

This is just what the model is telling us.

It's given to us by FEMA.

So while it's a federal regulation, they hand it off to the localities to then enforce.

You can build in both of those districts, both of those overlay areas.

It's more difficult in the flood way than it is in the flood plain.

What you're doing is you're doing one of two things.

One, when you're building in that space, you can't raise the base flood elevation anytime you're building in that space.

This is probably going to get way too technical.

But it's more difficult in the hatched area to build than it is in the flood plain.

So I hope that folks don't get confused that when they learn something is in the flood plain doesn't mean they can't build.

It just depends on what kind of building they want to do.

So if you're a commercial operation you can actually build in one of two ways.

You could flood proof your building or you could build where your bottom floor is one foot above the base flood elevation.

The floodplain is not just two-dimensional.

When you're looking at a map, it's also three-dimensional because there's an elevation to it.

In fact, that's what this black line is here, here, and way over here.

These are the elevations that are identified.

So when you go and you build on state one, you have to know what the elevation is, and then you have to build one foot above that elevation to get it outside of that mark.

When you're in residential you have to do that, but if you're commercial you get the option of flood proofing or building one foot above the base flood elevation There's so much more to say about it, but that's very small.

Yes, and it's it's it's rather complicated We send our folks off to get training And I'll say just in general

Floodplain regulations have gotten stricter and stricter and stricter over the years.

So our first map that we had in the city was from 1988.

We updated again in 2008, I think 2014.

Thank you.

Excuse me, just one more question about the floodway, floodplain.

I cannot answer that question.

But I can say that when you look at our historical mapping of the floodplain, it changes.

So it changes because a stream is always changing.

It's always releasing its energy on the banks.

So that's where you get the sinuosity of streams.

Of course, the more you pave in areas, it may be increasing the speed in which water travels into that space.

but the state regulations are so that when we are enforcing, again state regulations they hand to us to enforce for stormwater BMPs and things like that so we're looking at both water quantity and quality and so that when you build on any property and the state has nothing to do with floodplain is that you're having to meet the thresholds for both quantity and quality measures.

That's the rate at which water leaves a site.

So anytime that you have a site that is fully developed, complete impermeable surfaces, it's a bit easier to redevelop that site than it is to take a site that has not been developed because it's completely pervious.

beforehand.

So when you take an entirely wooded site, it's one of the more difficult sites to construct upon to meet all the standards that we have to hold folks to.

So the current floodplain likely doesn't, and I don't know if this comes into play, take into account much of our stream restoration work that we've done here over the last number of years.

I want to say yes, but honestly it is so difficult to measure.

You know, when you're looking at some of the projects that we're working on, we're looking at opportunities for water quality improvements.

So whether or not that alleviates and impacts the way the floodplain might look in a future mapping, I want to say yes, but it's very difficult.

Those models are very, very complex.

Great questions, thank you.

So anyway, the floodplain wasn't expected to have that much to do on a floodplain, but important in this particular case, we will continue to work with them for some of the changes that they made in the floodway, but also for this particular special use permit.

They're hoping to have seating and tables and other structures that are

Essentially they're floatable pieces of equipment and things like that that if a flood were to occur they can be picked up by the flood waters and moved.

So as we evaluated this special use permit we questioned to DCR whether or not

They could place those materials in the floodway and the floodplain.

At the time that we reviewed it during planning commission, there was no answer to us, but since that time they had gotten back to us, they being the Department of Conservation and Recreation, had gotten back to us and gave us the indication that yes, they can place those floatable pieces in the floodway and floodplain, but they have to obtain through our office what's known as a floodplain development permit.

There are some things that come into play with that where they're sort of agreeing to making sure, and this allows them to not have to do a flood study.

Flood studies can be very expensive, they're costly, they're time consuming.

So as long as they follow these criteria, then they don't have to do a flood study, and that is to make sure that the food truck remains road ready and readily movable so they're not putting it on blocks, they're not putting it up on jacks or removing the tires or anchoring it in any way.

It has to be movable.

They can't physically attach it to the permanent structure.

Of course, they can make some connections for utilities, but they can't physically attach it to the building.

The food truck operator would then submit a plan for moving and storing the materials to us in case there is a flood warning so that we recognize that they understand what comes into play and then also that the seating area can't expand beyond what is approved in the permit that they're getting from us.

So we can approve for them to put the table and the chairs and all those things out there so long as they continue to abide by that particular layout.

This of course is all comes into play if you will approve their special use permit.

So getting back to the specifics of the special use permit, they do want to only have one food truck and in this particular case the food truck is there.

We became aware of it back in May of this year.

We did have to issue them a notice of violation, but began to work with them to apply for a special use permit to get them into compliance, which is what brings me here this evening.

From a use perspective, we have no concerns.

So it is, as I noted earlier, it's moving them in the direction of having a use on this particular site that we are hoping to have utilized here in the long term plans of this area of Country Club Road.

A lot of our focus came into play with regard to the space that we're actually looking at in this image.

It's that space between the building and Country Club Road.

As you'll notice, there's no curbing.

No curb and gutter, and it's graveled.

So when you look at this image, you really don't have an idea of exactly where the property line is with regard to the public chute right away and their property.

So one, after being on site and making some field observations, one could presume by the way that they're using this space is that they could be

Backing in and out of the public street right-of-way which is not allowed for the zoning ordinance for reasons for safety of people maneuvering back into a space especially like Country Club Road where there's high volumes of traffic and the speeds are relatively increased beyond that of a typical residential or local street.

So when focusing on this, we did look back at the 1989 approved site plan, which I'll show you here in a moment.

But I just want to remind this group that from a parking perspective, the parking is quite minimal.

So for the vehicle service and repair shop, they only have to have six parking spaces.

As you can see in this image, they can fit more than enough than six, and the movable food trucks don't have a minimum parking requirement.

The mobile food truck is positioned where the green box is and while a benefit, not regulatory and not even a condition of ours, they do have permission from the adjacent property owner to utilize the gravel lot to the southeast of the property for parking if it's so needed for the mobile food truck.

When we look back at the 1989 approved site plan, and this was for the vehicle repair shop, it showed a couple of different things.

So first, just to sort of get your balance here, so here's the property shape.

the building that was proposed and now exists on site and then their gravel parking lot.

Really we were focusing quite a bit in this space where the pink area is showing that there was no parking that was proposed to be used in this space it was really just that staging area where vehicles are then positioned before they move into the bay and being that

They're using it as parking.

It's the place where the bays are located and the food truck is nearby.

There was a lot of activity in the space.

What also complicated this is that these green arrows here are representing where the curbing was planned to be in place when they were building the site.

a couple decades ago at this point, and in fact they were in place as of recent of 2012.

So you can see those curbings there.

The curbing was an indication of where the entrance is.

It's a control mechanism for people who are trying to turn into site to know where to funnel the traffic in and off the property.

Over the years, as the property's been used, the curbing has essentially disappeared.

And maybe through no fault of the property owner, adding gravel to the site, not understanding what the original design was, we're hoping through this process that we can help them and the passing public with the re-establishment of that curbing to delineate where vehicles are to be moving on and off site.

for not only the safety of the operation, but for those that might be coming to the food truck operation as well.

So again, in these images here where the curbing is supposed to be, you can just sort of see remnants of it in the bottom left, and then it's completely non-existent here in the bottom right-hand side, and that was from 2025.

So as noted, we don't have concerns with regard to the use, but we have four conditions that we're recommending and Planning Commission also recommended to you all unanimously to attach to the permit if you wish to approve it.

These are their recommendations.

So there's more details in your staff report to the specific conditions, so I'm just abbreviating them here on the screen.

But the four are number one is that in this particular case, we believe that one mobile food truck is what should be permitted That's what they're requesting.

That's what we believe should be permitted.

The second is to Prohibit parking between the existing building and the public street that does not mean as shown in the details in your staff report that the vehicle for the mobile food truck can't still be there and

because the mobile food truck is considered a vehicle.

It's licensed and registered as such.

And it also does not prevent vehicles that are waiting to be serviced from parking in that space to be then transitioned to the building.

So it's actual customer parking that we don't want to occur in this space given all of the activity that comes in and out of this space.

The third is that within 60 days of the special use permit approval that the entrance curbing to be reestablished as it was shown in the 1989 permit or as is approved by the Department of Public Works if there's a different standard they wish to apply.

And the fourth is that if the conditions that are noted here especially with regard to the curbing are not completed within 60 days the zoning administrator can grant an additional extension, a one-time extension which gives them an additional 60 days for a total of 120 days to get them

in compliance with the conditions that are on the screen before you.

I'll try to answer any questions you might have.

Again, we offered a favorable recommendation as the planning commission.

Yeah, first I would like to say that I like the phrases.

The city worked with them.

The city helped them.

That mentality is really great with the new businesses or businesses already existed.

Um, my question is that, um, it says your number two, no parking, no vehicle parking between the existing building and the public street, except the foot truck.

No, sir.

This condition is also to be indicated.

It's really following the plan that was shown in the 1989 site plan, which was that there was no parking to be utilized in this space because it is high activity zone for people coming onto the site, but then also positioning vehicles waiting to get into the bay, adding the food truck in this particular case, because we even questioned whether or not that was the correct location to have the food truck.

but relying on the fact that they can position it there so long as they are not impeding sight distance on and off site.

Yeah, actually I went there and I tried his food.

It's very delicious.

But I parked in front of the garage.

In front of the building?

Yes.

Yeah, but I didn't see any other places.

To the left in this space here and the image on the screen so all of this space is for customer parking or vehicles that might be waiting to be repaired but it's also customer parking too.

Okay.

with regard to the food truck operation, yes ma'am.

Now that is not something that we have on record.

What I understand is they have access to the lot behind it or an agreement, but even if they don't have access to that, they still have additional parking on the lot to make use of.

I'm just recalling this 60-day extension we came up with.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, so I will open up the public hearing.

Again, anyone wanting to speak, please give your name and address at the public hearing.

Council members, I don't know if you have questions for the applicant or not, so we can invite him up if you have questions.

So, Councilman Alsaadun, would you like to, do you have questions for the applicant?

Yes.

Okay.

Mr. Aristegui, would you be able to come forward, please?

Yes.

Hi.

Yeah, my name is Nasser Otegi.

I have to come for the food truck, for the commercial food truck, for permit.

Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, what are you looking to sell?

On this food truck, we try to sell Cuban food because I'm living here in Harrisonburg for 25 years.

The food here only like Mexican, kind of food like, you know, different kind of food.

No, we don't have any here like Cuban food.

And I know when the people travel to Florida, they like the food there, you know, our Cuban food.

And that one is a new style, the food, you know.

It's like Caribbean food, you know.

and we want to have an opportunity to show the community for the new food, you know.

I believe like people will like the food and I don't know.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I have a question, more of a comment.

I don't know if you remember me, I'm Nathaniel's sister.

I think you've done a wonderful job with this.

I love that idea of one like Nasser was saying, Councilman Ralston was saying that the city is so willing to work with you, but also to highlight

for the city, this cuisine I think is a wonderful idea.

I love also that we are working more as a city toward those walkable, bikeable neighborhoods, although I don't want to see kids

running across that street to try to get to your food, but I know it's going to happen and hopefully we won't have any problems with that.

We won't have any accidents, but I think that this is a wonderful project.

I think this is a wonderful way to earn money in the city and you already have the one business with the

the car repair shop and then to have this as an additional way of making additional income I think it's great I really like I've looked at the food truck I haven't stopped but I'm gonna stop now and check you out but I'll park where I'm supposed to park but yeah I just wish you luck in this endeavor and hopefully that when those curbs are uncovered it's not going to be too costly of an expense

So I like that also there's this option of adding an additional six months to try to dig around for some more change to get that completed.

If there aren't any other questions, thank you.

So we'll continue the public hearing.

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, Panayotis Yanakouras, City Resident.

A previous City Council heard a very similar use to this, actually a pair of uses.

On the same day, one was a food truck and that was greeted in a very different way.

I would like to say about this application, this is the first application that you are seeing under the new Planning Commission.

and I think it's a very positive development.

I testified in favor of this and the process at Planning Commission where it was heard and you heard from Mr. Fletcher today a lot of technical details being digested for you by a technically competent Planning Commission.

This is the kind of planning we need, the kind of input we need, and then for our decision makers to take that input and be in a position of the city helping you so that you don't get flooded, for example, and you know you can turn to the city for help.

That's a good place for us to go, and our new planning commission is helpful in that way.

However, this is new because recall in that previous food truck,

An immigrant, something that should resonate a lot now, whose father was stuck in Iraq based on a document issue, lost his food truck.

At least we think the outcome of that denial of the special use permit would have led to a losing of a business very much like this.

And on the same day,

The consequences of not deliberating on the basis of technical correctness and actual deliberation was that somebody who knew everybody on the dais had an almost identical situation approved.

So it was based on who you were, who you knew.

Does your brother know you?

It's okay if your brother knows you, but make sure that the technical side of the use is right.

Now what has happened in what was happening in all of these cases with the special use permit, it's a place there's potentially a discovery in gaps in our zoning where an entrepreneur has found a use that zoning wasn't aware of.

And then they bring it forward and we say, oh yeah, that's a good use.

That says that our zoning rewrite and our vision statement and the implementation plan that you're going to be talking about tonight has not benefited from all of this.

So I would say do not approve

that document later today and similarly we are coming up a little bit short on the small area plan in the Northeast neighborhood because we haven't had the adequate amount of we still take a customer service approach of the city manager runs the store and the people are customers and they can be denied service if they're unruly.

The people govern and the people find things if we have good process.

In this case, we had good process from Planning Commission.

Seems like we had an excellent idea from the applicant and I hope that this is how things will be going in the future.

But do deny that document and let's set a higher bar of participation for ourselves going forward.

Thank you.

Anyone else speaking to this special use permit?

One moment please.

Okay, I will close this public hearing.

Council members, we have a special use permit in front of us.

Okay, we have a first and a second.

Any other discussions or comments?

Okay, well looks like a excellent application and excited to try the food there if this passes.

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, this passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Okay, item 6c, Adam.

Consider a supplemental appropriation for the carryover and reappropriation of... Whoops, no, no, no, no, Adam.

You got up.

If Mr. Fletcher wants to take it, I'll defer to him.

Probably not.

I think he's ready to go.

Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Council, before you this evening, there are actually three supplementals totaling $22.7 million.

The first is encumbrances carryover from the previous fiscal year totaling $14.9 million.

Supplemental is done every year.

We're still experiencing long delivery times.

This includes the school carryover request.

There are also some very big ticket items in this.

We have two fire trucks.

nine school buses including three EVs, 13 replacement police patrol vehicles.

So we're still experiencing those delays in delivery and supply chain challenges which is increasing the the encumbrance for paying for these items.

The second are grant carryovers from the previous fiscal year totaling $6 million.

The supplemental, this also is done every year.

Most significant are five replacement transit buses and schools all in funding from the state.

And then third, new grant awards totaling $1.8 million and included in this is the, you may recall a few months ago, a railroad elimination grant for a study to see if we can eliminate portions of the railroad coming through the city.

and additional VDOT funding for the University Boulevard Evelyn Bird Avenue Sidewalk Project.

And I can try and answer any questions.

I will prep you that my finance director is not here tonight, so if they get too deep, I may have to defer.

Okay, any questions for City Manager Banks?

So this is a significant, we often do this every year, but this is a particularly significant amount of money, which triggers the public hearing, I guess, necessarily.

That's correct, yes sir.

So exceeds one percent of our budget, but this is almost five times that.

I will open this item up for public hearing.

Mr. Vice Mayor, Panagiotisianikouros, city resident.

The occasion of this particularly large reallocation is a good time to think about something that's been distorting our thinking, distorting our reasoning about things for the past couple of years.

We are dealing with a sizable amount of public funds.

I hear some of it was state funding.

I don't know if I heard correctly if there was any federal funding involved, but quite a bit of funding.

Now, there's been a fad that had unfortunately been addling the minds of a lot of our decision makers and is very sharply, very shrewdly marketed so that it's also entering our public discussion.

And that is this idea of so-called strong towns.

Now as this infrastructure spending is making sense to you, please keep in mind that that whole project was an ideological project to get municipalities to not use public funds, especially not federal funds.

It was an ideological

enterprise like the National Right to Work Committee that wants to eliminate the size of the federal government.

So you look at Doge, you look at President Trump, some people might like that.

If you like that, if you were, for example, legislative aide for somebody who perennially proposed a federal balanced budget amendment, you might like that.

But for people with a D next to their name, that's not your stuff, okay?

So a couple of things about that.

One is your tax-exempt bonds and all of that for infrastructure like this.

That fad was opposed to this.

That fad was also opposed to regulation.

It was a hard-right libertarian, Frederick Hayek, via Nassim Nicholas Taleb,

get rid of all government regulations.

So, what we just talked about in the previous, that would be out of bounds for strong towns, for example.

So, I hope we will disabuse ourselves of some of that confusion.

Now, with regard to this allocation then, as we think about what we can do with public infrastructure for the public good and what does public mean?

Parking.

We thought about parking.

We see what happens when we privatize our public spaces by spilling over parking onto them.

That was foolish.

That's another strong town idea.

When you have a piece of public space and there's a group of 10 neighbors around it, all those 10 people benefit from it.

If you privatize that,

then the owner is the only one benefiting.

So we as a city are providing benefits and services to all of our people and we shouldn't get confused by some of these catchy slogans and these political fads.

that take our eyes off of, as former council member Chris Jones used to say, providing public services.

And that doesn't mean helping you bully your neighbor.

That's not a public service.

That's chilling people and preventing people from enjoying the common good.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else to speak to this public hearing matter?

On this matter, you have a grant to place a sidewalk at University of Edinburgh.

As the previous speaker pointed out, I hope you don't mind, kind of the definition of public.

So why don't we make the public bus stops ADA accessible as per federal law set in effect in 1990?

This is the public hearing, so this is for the public to... I am public.

I'm addressing this situation as to why are you replacing University in Edinburgh replacing, is that correct?

Okay, so you've got a grant for that.

So this appropriation isn't to cover all those bus stops, I believe.

My point is, from Evelyn Byrd to University, you got a grant for it.

Correct.

Am I correct in saying that?

It is, it's a new grant that we received.

That's the new grant that we just got, the SmartScale grant.

Yes, so if you can get a grant to put in sidewalk there.

You cannot get a grant to make bus stops ADA accessible.

That's my point.

That's why I'm addressing this situation.

Just to respond to that, the grant for this, the SmartScale grant, there are only so many that we are able to apply and get in a given year.

We have two that we can put in.

We often have a long list of projects.

Why can't you put in a grant to make them accessible?

So I just want to reiterate, in the public hearing, this isn't to have a deliberative discussion or dialogue with you.

I would suggest what you can do with public works is make that request to them potentially as a grant.

I have several times.

Anyway, like I said, my main point is you can put a grant in, you put this sidewalk in.

Okay, again, we're not going to engage in discussing, but I appreciate the question and we've received the question.

Okay, that's all I got.

All right, thank you, Mr. Sheets.

Any additional public comment?

So related to this, okay, this item.

One moment, please.

Okay, I will close the public hearing for item 6C.

Vice Mayor Fleming, I move that we approve the supplemental appropriation for the carryover and reappropriation of prior year.

Just for clarity for folks this will increase our budget but it also the expenses have already been brought in so both the expenses and costs.

It's already allocated, yes.

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Councilmember Dent.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, this item, whoops, sorry about that, passes.

Good evening.

Tom Hartman, Public Works, here tonight with some updates and changes to our solid waste collection program.

So basically they all can be lumped up into two main changes.

The first change is tied to our bulk and yard debris collection.

We are proposing we will be changing our bulk and yard debris collection from the every other Wednesday where we do half the city one Wednesday first and third and then the other half the second and fourth Wednesdays.

We're going to transition that bulk and yard debris away from that standard collection to using our online recollect system.

This is the same system that we've been using for almost eight months now with our curbside cardboard collection, which has been very successful.

We are routinely 80 to 100 customers every week that either log into the system, request the service through the recollect system, or we still have a few folks that would rather call into the office and make the reservation over the phone.

So by changing the bulk and yard debris from the Wednesday collections and tying them to your collection day, that also allows us to adjust the collection schedules.

So we plan to move currently, we collect Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, we are going to move the Friday to Wednesday.

So that will be four days in a row.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday will be our regular collection days.

Friday will still be our cardboard collection day.

Downtown of the central business district will remain unchanged.

They will still receive five days of collection Monday through Friday, two times a day just because they have less ability to hold the trash.

We only have about 160 customers down there, so the downtown will not change.

So with those changes, I'll walk through the next couple slides to put some rationale behind why we're making these proposed changes to move to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday collection and change bulk and yard debris to reservation based where you reserve the same day as your regular collection day.

So, walking through the slides, this is just a quick snapshot of what city collections look like.

Different colors mean different collection days.

It's kind of probably tough to see with the lightness of the colors.

Just to show you the volume of customers and the way that they're spread out.

throughout the city.

With the current way that we collect bulk and yard debris on Wednesday, with half the city on a Wednesday and the other half the following Wednesday, we have to drive every street for half the city because there's no way for us to know if someone has bulk or yard debris out.

So we have to drive the trucks every day, every Wednesday for half the city just to check.

So in order to make these changes, we wouldn't have some data with that.

So we asked our folks over the past year to go out and we started making marks on figuring out how many actual collections we do over those Wednesday collection days.

What we learned was, and we knew, we have a high season and a low season.

High season from Vulcan Yard Debris are made to November.

The low season where less volume is December to October, which makes, excuse me, December to April, which makes sense because it's colder, less things to do in the yard, less waste you're generating.

So if we look at just the high season, for every hundred homes that we would, every customer, every hundred customers we would drive by, we're only picking up bulk from 13 of those.

So that's 87 homes we're just driving by just to check out and see if you have bulk or you have yard debris for us to pick up.

That's wasted time, wasted fuel on our crews.

So that gave us the reassurance that by adding this workload to the regular collection day, we weren't going to inundate our field crews to the point they couldn't keep up.

Our crews verified that with this data and then further if we go look into the low season, those numbers are even lower.

We're looking at three or four percent on a regular day, a collection day of volume of waste that we're picking up.

In addition to the change, we're also going to modify schedules.

So our crews currently work five eight-hour days.

When we make this change, we're going to work four nine-hour days to give ourselves an extra hour on that Monday through Thursday to make sure we can get the totors picked up, the bulk picked up, the yard debris picked up.

And then on Fridays, that gives us half a day to run the cardboard route, to do downtown servicing, to maintain equipment, to prep the areas, and be ready to go for the following week.

Our crews look forward to having the Friday afternoons off, even though they're going to be working a little bit longer throughout each day.

So some operational efficiencies that I've already discussed.

Residents will no longer have to remember am I a first or third or second or fourth Wednesday on my collection.

It's when you have yard debris or you have bulk in your you need to dispose of it you would go to the Recollect system or you call our office at least noon the day before let us know when you go to the Recollect system you'll log in or just go to the site in your address

It will know which collection day is yours, so if you're a Wednesday collection day and you're doing this on Monday because you did yard work over the weekend, you would log in, it would say you want your yard debris picked up this coming Wednesday, you say yes, then Tuesday evening comes when you take your toter down to the curb, you take your yard debris with it, when you get home from work on Wednesday, the toter is empty, the yard debris or bulk items are gone.

Our crews are taking care of it.

Then if you do yard work the following weekend, call us again.

We'll come back the next week.

There's no need to wait a week.

We'll come four weeks in a row if you have that amount of bulk or that amount of yard debris.

So we're increasing the level of service essentially that we will provide to the customers.

We're just asking them to just tell us.

This is the way that the operations will work.

We'll still run our separate total solid waste collection route.

Then we'll have a separate crew that will run bulk and yard debris.

We need the reservation by noon the day before so that our staff can program that route for the crews the next day.

So they'll come in on your Wednesday, the bulk truck will look at the route,

and they'll know they only have to drive by the customers that said they have bulk.

We're not driving all 87, going by 87 properties that don't have bulk, we're going to the 13 that do.

Once they pick up the bulk, they come back, dispose of the bulk, then they go back and pick up the yard debris.

That's an important nuance to know that we're separating, with the new program, separating the bulk from the yard debris.

Currently when we go and collect bulk and yard debris, it goes in the same truck.

which means that if it goes in the same truck, that truck goes to the landfill.

Then we tip all of that waste at the landfill for $75 a ton versus if we now when we separate it and we keep bulk separate, that goes to the landfill at $75 a ton.

But the yard debris will be collected separately.

We'll bring it back to our convenience center.

We have a grinder.

We grind that material down to a side that the landfill will take for free.

as daily cover.

So we're reducing our expense of disposing of that material because we're able to make our process so that we can separate that material at the truck.

We've had success with the online schedule.

It's flexible for our customers to use.

There have been some folks that we walked through on the phone with them how to reserve and make reservations.

Once they learned, it's pretty simple, but our staff is still there Monday through Friday to answer the phone and make the reservation for them.

The final benefit would be we've all been there, Christmas to Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving to Christmas holidays.

It's the fifth Wednesday in a snowstorm and we miss trash or we miss the bulk day and then their calls and it's service and we have trash out on the streets.

This helps minimize those impacts because it's Monday through Thursday and we can we can bend and flex a little bit a little bit more and be more flexible than with our current schedule.

This is a quick snapshot of what customers will see when they log in.

So you would log in, enter your address, and then here's where you would tell us what we're picking up.

If you select cardboard, it'll bump you to the next available Friday for collection.

There is, for small bulk, large bulk, and yard debris, we have already some pre-filled in examples of what small and large bulk are.

But we know that that's going to generate questions, so as we receive questions or we start to see more common items pop up, we can amend this list and let it change and grow so that we can be more nuanced and be able to respond to folks as they have those items.

We want to know difference between small and bulk because that is going to make us want to use a different truck, essentially, as the main reason we differentiate between small and large bulk.

The key thing here is, again, people can still call, they can email, they don't have to use recollectors if they're not comfortable or don't have access to the internet.

So, I'm telling you, but how are we going to tell our customers?

Our plan is to hold four open houses.

This says we're going to start next week.

We're actually not going to start until the 23rd.

And then we'll have one meeting each week until October 14th.

We're going to meet at Keister, Smithland Skyline, Waterman, and Stone Spring.

Our staff will be there for two hours in the evenings.

We'll have laptops so customers can come in.

They can practice making reservations on the test sites so they can get comfortable using the system.

They can ask us questions about how they're going to use it.

What does this mean?

Why are we doing the changes?

Also, for the Friday customers, we'll be there with new maps to show them you're now a Wednesday customer because that's probably the biggest change.

If your kids know it's Friday and it's trash day and all of a sudden you change it, you're upset in the cart a little bit.

So we know we're going to do some education and have some maps and do some extra focused outreach to what is now the Friday, but will become the Wednesday side for collection.

So timeline of our process, again September to October with the open houses at the elementary schools.

We'll continue, once those wrap up, we'll continue and get more aggressive with our public outreach as we get closer to the end of the year.

As we crest into 2026, we'll start that first full week with our new collection program, our new collection schedule, rolling out recollect.

We know there's going to be some educational

opportunities for the first couple months as people learn.

Wednesdays are not bulk days anymore.

Fridays are not Fridays, but they used to be.

So we'll do some education.

We'll have tags.

Our customer service representatives will be out driving the streets, talking with property owners, and letting them know of these new changes.

And then in April, hopefully, everyone has learned the new system, and all of our enforcement tools will be back into full effect after that.

So hopefully that was understandable.

I tried to go through the best that I could.

I paid an appointment for cardboard pickup, but then my boys put it in the regular trash.

It was out there, broke down, so they just thought it went in the can.

So how do you cancel?

If you make it online, is it best just to send an email?

That's what I did.

Either way, phone call or email us at Public Works.

I don't think there's a way to go.

No, I don't know.

I can check on that with our seat, but I'm pretty sure there's not a way to go online and undo.

So yeah, best way for that, if you make a reservation, something changes in your schedule, either we'll just drive by and say, oh,

They put in the trash by accident or call our office or email us and let us know that it's not going to be there and we can go turn it off on our side of the system.

Yeah, Mr. Harper, I like it and I give you a 10 out of 10.

Smart way, that's for the new or for the future way of reducing time and expenses.

But did you put in mind, like some people, I don't know how friendly is the website to make reservation.

You know, we have different languages and people may or may not use the online or even the phone call.

I will have to check but I'm pretty sure that since this is an online platform that it can be translated through your browser to your preferred language and then we see it in English when it comes to our system but I believe because it is through the browser it can be translated to that appropriate language so that it can be used by multiple citizens.

I'll double-check that just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure that that's the case.

Or, you know, you could email our office, call if you call, and there is a language barrier.

We do have translation services that we can get on the phone, and we can connect the dots, essentially, and make that reservation for them.

You mentioned that there is like a peak season and the other season you don't see any people are having any bulk or anything.

So did you put in mind like you use that service when you have like no peak season and use the conventional one in peak season?

Yes, we thought about a couple different models on if

Recollect would not have been a service that could be taught into our route management system where essentially Recollect makes the reservation, it goes to the route ware system, it makes the map and pushes it out to the trucks.

If that wasn't available, we were looking at proposals where we would potentially

Kurtail bulk and yard debris from December to April and say if you have any material during those five months you can bring it to the convenience center but our trucks aren't going to run those Wednesdays and then when April came back on then we run the service again through from April through October.

We didn't know how well that would be received because you're taking services away for those five months.

We thought that being able to utilize technology and use the RecLect system and be a little more nuanced and provide more service to the city, to our customers, because now we can be at their curbside once a week to collect the yard debris and the bulk material and they don't have to store their grass clippings in the side yard for two weeks.

They can put it out every Monday or Tuesday whenever they finish mowing.

We thought that was a better approach.

But you believe, and I believe, that there is like a saving in that way that you are using the smart way.

There is saving in money and time.

Correct.

There's savings from this approach in two ways.

One, we're not driving over streets where we don't need to collect anything.

We know that if we're going to your home to pick up your toter, your bulk or yard debris, there's material there.

And our routes have put us there in the most efficient way to get from our shop.

to the customer to the landfill and back.

And then the second benefit would be by us being able to separate our bulk and yard debris.

With bulk, we have to tip and we have to pay $75 a ton to tip it.

But with the yard debris being separated from the bulk material, we can bring it back to our shop, grind it, and then we can dispose of it at the landfill at no cost to the city.

So if those, you saw in the slide, we collected well more, our tonnage for yard debris is higher than our tonnage for bulk.

Thank you.

Specifically for that I think that address.

And just looking at your chart here, you know the December to April material types, I mean there's still a significant proportion of that which is yard debris.

Correct.

I failed to mention one thing.

With the art debris, if we do have large ice storms or wind storms that come through and create a large amount of debris, Public Works will still schedule special collections for those large storm events so that we're not inundating ourselves or making citizens hold onto that longer than they should.

I just wanted to commend you for the environmental savings as well as cost savings of both having the big heavy trucks making much smaller and more efficient routes and the separation of the yard debris so that it doesn't go directly into the landfill.

Those are both great innovations.

My question is about our fine system.

Did you all have to

re-evaluate like the fines.

Probably more a warning.

Hopefully we're not enforcing for a lid not being closed.

Stuff like that.

So will there be some sort of fine in place if folks are putting

over time so that first like the January to March that'll be kind of like the burn-in period where people or citizens are learning the programs.

If we go by and we see bulk that wasn't scheduled, we're probably not going to pick the bulk up.

We're going to put a note on there, hey, use this recollect system to schedule your bulk, we'll pick it up.

I think enforcement wouldn't happen until we had a repeat offender over multiple times and there was no other recourse other than we've tried communication, we've tried knocking on the door, we've had face-to-face conversations.

That's kind of a last resort for us.

It's just that those customers just

just don't want to participate in the program correctly.

Do you know how often you find folks that you know either aren't understanding the system in the program or aren't compliant in some ways and that you again want to you know alert them to here's how this works we hope you will kind of do in this particular way.

No, I just know from talking with our seat about the cardboard, there was a learning curve.

We talked to a lot of people on the phone that would call in and say, what is this program?

How do I take advantage of it?

So we would share within the website, we would make the initial reservation for them.

But over time that call volume has dwindled.

We do still have two or three customers that prefer to call in during the week and let us know they have cardboard and we'll schedule it on the portal for them through the office and we'll go pick it up.

But I think from what I've heard, the learning curve has gotten better.

So it seems to me, one, I appreciate that you'll have sessions, you know, for folks to go to.

I'm assuming, however, that most folks won't find out about this through those, going to those sessions, right?

There'll be other ways.

And I'm guessing we're going to have a good bit of a transition time for folks.

How long does that take?

The good thing is that we do touch every customer every week so our crews will have flyers that we'll keep in the truck that once we get to the point that we're putting flyers on toters we'll tag and put a flag on every single toter for two or three weeks and people will bring their toter and read the flyer oh it's changing this is the new program over time hopefully we'll learn

But then once we get into it, Christopher and Reggie go right behind our collection trucks, and they'll be having conversations, knocking on doors.

Christopher's bilingual, so we'll be able to have multiple conversations and try to provide that education that we can.

Okay, and then you'll just make the decision of when to stop the double routes at some point when you... Yeah, that's when our staff... We'll see that the frequency our people have learned, and then we're guessing it's going to be sometime April, April, May.

Kind of a quick question.

You were talking about how well the cardboard program has been over the last several months.

Can you talk to the efficiency of the mobile recycling units?

Like how has that affected the mold?

Because you used to take your cardboard there.

I know when we initially talked about the cardboard collection, one concern we had was that this was just going to divert the stream from people bringing it to the mobile unit or the convenience center.

Now they're just going to put it on the curb and we're going to see no added benefit from the city as far as taking the material away from the landfill and increasing our cardboard rates.

From my memory, from what we've talked about at different staff meetings, we have seen more cardboard come into the center.

So it hasn't leveled off, it's increased.

So we're providing access to more folks to recycle their cardboard than what we had thought could happen, that we'd see a plateau or a diminishing because it was, I just come to my house and pick it up.

We're not seeing that.

We're seeing people still utilizing the convenience center.

Come by on a Saturday, there's always a line.

The mobile unit can never stay out for the full morning shift because it fills up way too early.

The park view stop, I think he gets there by 730, he's full by 930 or 10, and then he's coming back to the shop.

One note would be that 10 years ago when the city was performing curbside collection, we collected mainly trash and then we had to sort it and we had a certain volume tonnage of recyclables

We are nearly at that same tonnage now of recyclables doing it the way that we currently do it with this convenience center, the mobile unit, and the cardboard collection.

And all the material that we collect, high quality, good clean recyclable, and every bit of it is pushed into the market.

I know I've found that I just take my cardboard to the convenience center as opposed to putting it at the curb because I'm going there anyway.

I'm taking my plastics there.

So I put it, it's just as convenient for me to carry it there.

But I appreciate that you and your staff, you know, continually look to find ways to bring efficiencies.

I'll look at new models.

We're trying to be innovative in delivering this and saving staff time and then, of course, you know, hopefully a budget saving here for us.

Mr. Hartman?

Alright, thank you all.

Appreciate it.

Okay, Council, unless there's more discussion.

This is just an update, so we don't have to vote on this?

Correct.

I'll take that on behalf of the Commissioner of Revenue and the Finance Director.

It's that time of year again where Council must set the percentage of personal property tax relief for the tax year

and just a little background.

This goes back to 1998.

We've been doing it since then, but each year the state transfers to the city an amount of money.

It's $1,522,880, just over $1.5 million.

And then the Commissioner of the revenue and the finance group get together and they spread that over all of the personal vehicles that are taxed in the city.

All the vehicles that are valued at less than $1,000, there's no tax on that takes care of that.

And then the property vehicles between $1,000 and $20,000, the tax relief is 18.2%.

If you have a vehicle that's worth more than $20,000, then the 18.2% relief goes on the first 20, and then anything above $20,000, you pay the full tax on that part.

So again, this year, the calculation turns out to be 18.2%.

Many times more vehicles in the $1,000 to under $20,000 category for us.

That's right.

Basically, the resolution just recites that.

For this year, the personal property tax relief is 18.2%.

Second.

At 18.20%.

And that was the second, Councilwoman Dent?

Thank you.

Any more discussion?

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Aye.

There you go.

Thank you Vice Mayor.

Again, Council has before them a resolution approving the city's participation in a proposed settlement of opioid related claims against a variety of either manufacturers or distributors.

As you recall, Council approved one of these at its last meeting.

This particular settlement will provide 720 million dollars nationwide

Do we know the timeframes where there'll be, I guess, a deadline and when cities have to respond to this, they'll take that calculation and then determine.

I believe for this one, there's an October 8th deadline, so once they receive all that, they'll do the calculations.

Second.

Okay, we have a first and a second.

Motion to second.

Any other discussion?

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, the resolution passes.

Correct, thank you Vice Mayor.

As council knows, city staff has been pursuing the future renovation of the historic municipal building right next to City Hall for city offices and expansion.

As part of that consideration, we've reached a point where city staff is recommending approval of a resolution that would allow us, if we were to go out to the bond market and borrow money and some future point for this project,

It would allow us to in essence pay ourselves back for the design and engineering costs that we're currently expending funds on through our architecture and engineering team.

This just provides more flexibility.

This doesn't mean that we are going to borrow money.

So we still maintain the option of using

Our current general funds for this, but if we determine that cost is prohibitive or too high, we can go to the bond market.

Absolutely.

Yes, sir.

It allows for that.

Okay.

Any questions?

Okay.

Was this basically just because it's an insurance policy to go to the bond market in the future?

Vice Mayor, I move that we approve the reimbursement resolution for the municipal building and City Hall renovation project as presented by City Manager Banks.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

There's no other discussion.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Councilmember Dent?

Aye.

Aye.

The resolution passes.

Good evening, Council.

It is a pleasure to be with you this evening.

and can we get the, oh there we go.

Voila.

I'm going to be giving an update on the council vision and action plan this evening.

And this will be a review for you all, but this will be a good opportunity for the public to hear about this process as well.

So I'm going to talk about what a council vision and an action plan are.

I'm going to discuss staff progress on your priorities over the last fiscal year.

And then we'll discuss your updates to the vision and your priorities going forward.

So when a new council is sworn in in Harrisonburg, the members convene to discuss their aspirations for the city over the next 20 years.

When put to text these aspirations, we call them a vision statement.

A vision statement, actually, let me go back.

The vision statement guides the council in determining what it wants to focus on, and those focus areas then become priorities, which are the things that you want the city to achieve over the next several years.

As staff, we receive these priorities from the council, and then we operationalize them by creating tasks to be achieved, assigning responsibilities, and setting target dates for completion.

These are put together in what we call the Council Vision Action Plan.

It's a three-year implementation guide for achieving the priorities that you set.

So this is an example of one of the templates for one of your priorities.

And you'll see the complete document that has all of these attached to your item materials.

But as just an overview here, you'll see at the top that is the vision area, and beneath that is the priority.

Underneath that you'll see the rationale which is an explanation for why this is an important area for the city to focus on.

You'll see the champions or the staff member assigned to kind of oversee its implementation and then the tasks that staff have come up with as well as their associated target dates.

So now that we've talked about what a vision and an action plan are, let's turn and look at some of the success we've had in implementing your priorities over the last fiscal year.

Now, what I'm going to share with you this evening is not a comprehensive listing of all the successes that staff made over the last year.

There's not enough time to do that, but this is a selection of highlights to see a more complete summary and overview of this.

You can also refer to your item materials where it's in there as well.

One of the things that we wanted to highlight, though, was the Community Connectors program.

So through intentional outreach to residents, businesses, houses of worship, and other groups, the Community Connectors team has empowered residents to share their stories and their hopes for what the Northeast neighborhood could be in the future.

And this effort has resulted in establishing a small area plan for the neighborhood, which is a first for a Harrisonburg neighborhood.

With economic development, our staff are busy and working towards completing the economic development strategic plan.

A major component of this, the industry cluster analysis has already been completed.

Another accomplishment that we've made over the last year is implementing the Harrisonburg Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, which paired 30 local early stage entrepreneurs with industry experts to get technical assistance, technical assistance to help these businesses grow.

This was seen as a huge success by the participants and by staff.

And so we are working on coming up with another cohort in the near future.

It's also been a busy year for capital projects across the city, and I'm going to highlight just two of them real briefly here.

So the Navigation Center is open, which is great, and this has now provided 80 beds and supportive services to the unsheltered community members in Harrisonburg.

Staff continue to work with Open Doors to provide support to these members of our community and this has been seen as another big success and you guys know that a lot of groups have been reaching out to us to learn about how we were able to implement this and get this off the ground and so we're really proud of the work that's gone into that.

and if you've talked to Chief Tobia within the last couple of months, you know that Fire Station 5 is quickly nearing completion and we are excited to soon have a grand opening celebration for that.

And this is going to be a great asset to the north side of our community.

It will improve response times for calls of service and this is located on Mount Clinton Pike.

The city has been busy assessing the needs of children and their families.

We worked with the Wilden Cooper Center at the University of Virginia to conduct a comprehensive review on population and student enrollment projections between now and 2034.

So this data is going to help us inform future planning for things like facilities and services.

Additionally, we leveraged ARPA funding to assist with the expansion of several early child care facilities to add approximately 250 slots into the community.

And we were able to use this one-time funding that's going to result in years of perpetual benefit to residents for a much needed service that we will continue to look for opportunities to assist with.

We've also been working towards completing long term planning.

So we have completed this transit strategic plan after a series of meetings with HDPT staff, city leaders and the community members.

So we are implementing it now with plans to expand services and optimize routes.

The stormwater improvement plan has also been updated, and future implementation of this plan will include ways that the city can incorporate flooding mitigation, drainage issues, and climate change impacts into stormwater programs.

So now that we've talked about some of the success that we've had over the last year, let's move and talk about your updates to your council vision and the associated action plan.

At the beginning of this year, you held a retreat to review your vision statement and to look over your priorities.

Now, as you recall, the language of the vision statement is largely maintained.

And this is probably a good thing.

It was only two years ago that you rewrote it.

And most of you are still on here.

So it's good that your 20-year vision from the city for the city hasn't drastically changed.

But one thing that you did decide to change was having the tagline, if you will, from the capital of the Shenandoah Valley to a city for all.

And you can see that reflected in the language of the vision statement.

After you made that change to the vision statement, you reviewed your focus areas and priorities to determine which of those priorities you felt were completed, which ones you wanted to carry over into a new plan, and then you also identified some new ones and made modifications to existing ones.

So these next two slides represent those priorities broken down into focus areas.

There are 30 priorities in those six areas.

And I didn't list all of the tasks that are associated with that because the font was going to get real small.

There's about 180 tasks that staff have worked to operationalize and put your priorities into action.

but if you want to see the full write out of all of these tasks and in the action plan that attachment is in your item materials as well.

With these priorities, six of them are new this year or for the next three years as you say, you came up with six new ones and probably another half dozen or so were modified in a way to meet more current needs from what they were a few years ago.

So with that, staff seek council approval to adopt the 2045 council vision and the 2025 through 2028 action plan.

If approved, staff will provide an annual update near the beginning of each new fiscal year on progress made on the action plan and also celebrate successes made throughout the year as appropriate.

Any questions?

Excellent update.

Excellent.

Thank you.

I really appreciate this document for the city.

I think it reflects, you know, our vision, what we want to see get done in the city, but most importantly for residents to be able to see what we're doing.

And I think as we move forward making this document more

Public facing available to folks to look and see what we're doing here and also see that we're moving on these plans or where we're not they'll be able to see that as well but I think it'll be really important for residents to see the work that staff are doing to carry out this vision which is an enormous amount of work actually.

I think it's often hard for residents to see and appreciate all that work but this is a document that can help highlight that.

We appreciate that.

So I guess there might be some plans to maybe make this more visible to the public, have the plan either on the website and push out the documents so folks can kind of see the vision, see the strategies that we're putting in place.

Well, I just wanted to echo that and appreciate how staff drills down from our vision to actual tasks to implement it.

Yeah, I see there are like two sections for available housing for all.

I thought I changed that in the slide before we started here.

So it might not be reflected on your copy, but let me go back here for you.

Yeah, so it's supposed to say high quality city services on that attachment.

So thank you.

Yes, you notice that as well.

Yeah, we both caught that one.

Having worked with a number of foundations who are looking to support different projects we have in the city, they actually appreciate and take note of these items when we have them in our vision and have them in our priority, in our strategies and priorities.

So when we put grants in and we can show that the city has a specific strategy and priority, they take note of that.

They recognize that we're committed

through this document but also then can trace it to our budget and say we're also putting money towards these things.

I want to say to the public that this is the vision that we implemented from all the city council members.

So I think that the city will do the best and we will definitely monitor that from the city council members.

And we also need the help of the assistance from any member of the residents of Harrisonburg.

I'm always quite impressed with the amount of work that the that the staff does.

I mean, it's easy for us to it wasn't easy, but we did the retreat and we really, you know,

worked very hard to narrow it down to some things that we thought were must-haves for the city, but then to see that vision taken and put actually into these steps and items that are being completed that changes the lives of our citizens every day and grants them more opportunities to do

more things and be able to have access to the resources that are there is amazing.

I mean, just

Just what you have here, and I'm a color person, so I really like the way you split this up and just didn't add in all the other little stuff.

I mean, we are really working hard to make this a city for all.

And if people ever doubt that, all they would need to do is look at the amount of work

that individuals put in to make presentations and then that just kind of trickles down so we know there's a massive amount that's being done and worked on throughout this organization on a regular basis so that we can present to our citizens the best opportunities that are out there, the best housing options that are out there,

the best services, the best water department, I mean, we just, we just, it's amazing to see how much work this machine does.

And I am just appreciative of your ability to keep up with it.

To keep up with it and be able to present it in a way that's easy to understand and easy to comprehend, understand everything all the same, but

I thank you for the work that you are doing.

Any other comments, discussion?

Second.

Okay.

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, that wraps up our regular items.

Next on the agenda are other matters including comments from the public.

So limited to five minutes on matters that are not on the regular agenda.

Good evening honorable city council members.

My name is Sam Nichols.

I am a resident of Harrisonburg.

Tonight I bring another update regarding the impact of Trump policies and ICE specifically on our community.

As of today, in our DHS ICE region, it's been confirmed that there have been 246 people who have been kidnapped and disappeared from their families by ICE.

Aside from those in the Harrisonburg-Rockingham area during the last couple weeks, there's been one person in Luray, one in Strasburg, and two in Lynchburg.

Tonight, I want to share two stories with you that were posted on social media.

The first is by a schoolteacher.

She wrote, imagine being eight years old and your mom is your whole world.

She is your only caregiver and helps you to navigate the world because you are autistic.

You go to school and you say goodbye.

When you come home, nobody is there.

Thankfully, an older family member comes.

He says that ICE took your mom and you have to live at his home now.

This is not a fictional story, but one that happened to a student in my school this week.

How many times will this story be repeated in Harrisonburg?

It needs to stop.

If this upsets you, please reach out to those in our community who are being affected.

The second post is by the daughter of a man who was kidnapped and then later deported.

The teen wrote, after seeing a video of her father being arrested, she wrote, the man in this video is my dad.

The woman is my aunt.

Undercover ICE agents trailed my father in plain sight for nothing.

Minutes before his arrest, I received a call from him in which I could not answer because I was in class.

To think that call could be the last time I hear from him is absolutely heartbreaking.

He was pulled over and arrested and detained without a warrant.

I have no one to go home to today.

Me and my brother had to sit through the entire school day paranoid about my father and his condition.

We still do not know what's going to happen to him.

He is innocent.

ICE agents watched him leave the house from afar and decided that he was a threat solely because of his skin color.

This is not the first time he's been detained either.

My father's hard-working single dad who gave up everything to be reunited with his children.

This has got to be the most traumatic thing I've ever witnessed, seeing a video of my family being detained by monsters.

If someone knows what I can do right now to help my father, please let me know.

I just want my dad back.

He did nothing wrong.

My father is not a criminal.

He's just a human being as much as the next man.

Papers are not.

This racist monster of a president is enabling the unwarranted arrest and detention of innocent fathers and mothers of US-born children and citizens.

Please share this post to raise awareness about this situation and many others like this.

I do know that the children were transported to a detention center to meet with their father.

They were able to place their hand on the glass to try to simulate touching him.

There was another planned meeting but before that he was deported back to his home country.

Hello, Council.

My name is Theresa Hinckley.

I live in Harrisonburg, grew up here, and I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of some other people who have had interactions with ICE over the last few weeks.

On August 26, 2025, ICE profiled a U.S.

citizen, arrested her, held her for several hours, and then released her after confirming that she was a U.S.

citizen.

On August 28th, ICE kidnapped a mother, leaving two elementary school children without their mother.

The mother was separated from her children on their way to a doctor's appointment.

Eventually, another family member came to the scene to pick up the children.

On August 29th, on South Main Street near the DMV, a female was questioned and detained.

Later, she was let go after ICE had determined that she was a U.S.

citizen from Puerto Rico.

Their excuse from stopping her was a burnt-out taillight.

Not rape, not murder, not trafficking fentanyl, burnt-out taillight.

On September 3rd, ICE was cited at University Place Apartments.

Observing the neighborhood.

Advocates for vulnerable residents arrived, photographed three ICE vehicles, talked to the occupants of those vehicles, confirmed that they were ICE agents.

One of the agents admitted he didn't know if the people that they were trying to detain had criminal records or not.

More advocates showed up with pots and pans and signs and eventually I strove off.

Returning a few times, but over the course of the evening more advocates continued to arrive.

keeping their eye out for the agents.

Eventually, residents came out of their apartments and engaged with the advocates, thanking them for being there, thanking them for challenging the ICE agents and getting them to leave.

During this time, ICE agents were taking pictures and videos of the people who showed up to challenge them.

On September 4th, ICE was sighted at another apartment complex in Harrisonburg where they were stopping people and checking to see if they had licenses or were documented.

They talked to at least three different people but could not arrest anyone.

Shortly afterwards, community members turned out en masse, yelling, challenging ICE's impact on the community and notifying neighboring residents that ICE was there.

One unknown Latina woman was filming ICE

Close enough to one of the ICE agents that he felt uncomfortable, grabbed her, pushed her back several feet, appearing to be frustrated with the attention and the loud noise.

Soon afterwards, agents returned to the cars that were parked there and left the scene.

What advocates and observers have learned is that ICE is using traffic stops to screen people to see if they can kidnap them.

ICE parks at the entrances of apartment complexes preventing people from entering or leaving due to fear.

When people show up to challenge ICE, they often leave.

ICE has crossed the line by physically pushing a woman who was filming them.

ICE has been arresting U.S.

citizens through racial profiling and making mistakes.

and detaining people to find out their citizens because they're brown.

Our friendly city is not a headline-grabbing major city getting national news coverage, but we are not completely under the radar.

Virginia's proximity to D.C.

has been a catalyst for heavy ice activity in Northern Virginia.

Just over the mountain, UVA's president was replaced due to pressure from the Trump administration.

Donald Trump has called out Harrisonburg, Virginia's woke high school in reference to trans-affirming policies.

My own children have benefited from some of those gender affirming policies that Trump felt the need to call out.

All of this is to say that it is possible for a scenario to unfold in Harrisonburg in which our local government is directly called upon to assist federal agents in racial profiling and breaking up families.

Real people in our community are affected.

Many real people in our community have no idea what's going on.

I hope that City Council considers making public statements supporting keeping families together.

I hope City Council considers making public statements denouncing racial profiling tactics that we see ICE employing.

One of the neighborhoods in which this activity is taking place is the Country Club Court neighborhood.

There is one way in, one way out of that neighborhood.

One

Car parked with an ICE agent at that entrance prevents people from going to work, going to school, going to doctor's offices.

The misdemeanor of being undocumented in the United States does not warrant family separation.

It does not warrant racial profiling.

It does not warrant people being detained to make sure that they're U.S.

citizens because they're brown.

And I would just like to acknowledge Councilmember Robinson's remarks that we are working very hard to make this city a place for all.

I'm Wayne B. Wanker.

I've lived in Harrisonburg all my life.

And I agree with them.

I think Donald Trump should be sent back to Germany.

It would suit me fine.

But I wanted to bring up two things that are local that concern me.

I walk down my street.

I don't have a sidewalk and I don't care about that.

But the man who was talking a while ago about changing this Garbage pickup thing and I don't care if they pick up the leaves and stuff on Friday That sounds fine to me except every Monday.

There's a holiday I get pushed to Tuesday and I don't care about that either.

But what I do care about is the city trucks have removed the things under where the trash goes in and

to be swept up into the truck.

It's dirty, and the juice is squeezed out onto the road.

And five years ago, I was here at a meeting and brought it up, and it stopped for a month.

It did stop.

So it can be done.

Put the things back in the back of the truck.

Because I don't want to be walking through, well, there's a lot of depends on this.

The ladies that live in my neighborhood, and there's a lot of retired ones, you see the pins, boxes.

Well, that juice is coming out on the road, and then I have to walk around it.

I don't walk through it.

But the sweeping truck doesn't come as often as it used to to clean it up.

and the ones we have now don't spray water as hard as it used to to make it loose so it stays there.

I've got pictures on my phone of huge piles of water and it's not really water it's what I was mentioning it's in the depends and I would really appreciate it if you all would get them to put the bolts back in the truck

Pick a place in Harrisonburg on the way to the dump where they could squeeze the drug juice out there so they aren't paying for the weight.

I know that's why they're doing it, so they don't have to pay extra money to the county or whoever owns the big dump out there.

but squeezed the juice out through filters.

My grandfather used to be the water superintendent and I would go with him and see how that was done.

Not the trash trucks but regular things would be squeezed through sand and filtered and then go into the streams.

And I would just appreciate it if something could be done for the trucks like that.

But there's one other thing that I really am hoping you all will do.

If you ride through Harrisonburg, almost every neighborhood, there's one house

in a block that has so much junk and stuff on the porch and trees and limbs and stuff that they're not trimmed and maybe the house isn't painted.

And I can take pictures of them and bring them to a meeting and show you some of them are disgusting.

There's really nice neighborhoods and one house is let go and looks real trashy.

And I don't think that's right to the people that live next to them.

especially if you decided your company transferred you and you had to be moved.

And how's your house going to sell when it's next to that?

And I can take you if you want to ride along and show you where these are.

But I can take pictures and we can bring them and show them.

But something needs to be done about that.

And the reason I'm concerned about unsightly buildings

is I do not want Lindsay's to be taken down.

That is a beautiful facility.

And every Christmas they decorate, to tear that down and put up something that isn't really pretty, it's okay, it's satisfactory and I'm sure it's strong and sturdy.

But it would look much better if it was parked where Rose's is tearing down that building and they're moving out to the other mall.

It would look nice there because it's right across from a huge feed tower that's twice that tall.

And they would be able to go to all those restaurants there and patronize them.

But since the place has going to have restaurants and all in it, some of the ones that complain they don't get student business,

Put them in there on the ground floor.

But please do not put the building up here where Lindsay's is.

That's a beautiful facility.

We have trees.

Who wants concrete right next to the sidewalk?

And I don't know.

I've had all my relatives, my father, my mother, my little baby sister and aunts and uncles have all gone through Lindsay's.

and they were wonderful.

And of course they're gone and Charlie wants, he's in a different business and he wants to make some money.

And I can understand that.

But the back part could be sold to anybody who wanted to build townhouses or apartment buildings and whatever and that would look pretty.

Well, help me.

Don't let make me suffer and see that horrible building put up there.

They could put it up at Rose's.

where it's going down or you could put it out here behind McDonald's where that land was for sale because whatever was going to go in there before was rejected because they didn't have downstairs restaurants or something is what it said in the paper.

So please move into another location in the city, take a bus that runs every hour directly to the center of the city if they want it to go to a restaurant or

Billy Johns or whatever they're called and have a good time, but don't put them there.

All the streets, I was telling you about those.

Thank you.

Main Street looks pretty right now with that.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Laura Camarado.

I live on 270 Paul Street.

I'd like to speak to you tonight about the three petitions submitted in regard to the Link zoning proposal in August.

Two of the petitions supported the Link project.

Once the duplicates were removed, 177 signers

were included.

Of those, 22% have direct financial ties to the project, including owners, employees, and partners of Klein May, Cottonwood, Priority Property, Monteverde Engineering, and of course, Timber Wolf.

In stark contrast, our petition continues to grow and currently has 1,300 signatures.

Roughly three quarters of those signers live here in Harrisonburg in the 22801 or the 22802.

zip codes.

The remainders are from neighboring counties or visitors from out of state, people who come here because they value Harrisonburg as a small, walkable, bikeable, livable, and unique community with character that they can't find in larger cities.

And that is why petitions matter.

They are a clear visible expression of the public will.

They give residents, not just developers and business owners, a voice in the decision and in the future of their and our neighborhoods.

Our petition shows something very powerful, public enthusiasm for shaping Harrisonburg's growth thoughtfully.

This isn't just an opposition to one project.

It is a community asking for a seat at the table.

Perhaps all of this interest could better be served through an architectural review board that could help council evaluate future proposals and recommend appropriate proffers.

So growth serves both developers and residents alike.

This is a moment of opportunity.

I can see that you care through your action plan that you want Harrisonburg to be multicultural, diverse, beautiful as well.

You can harness this energy and build a stronger partnership with the residents you represent.

I ask you to reflect on the legacy you would like to leave as a resident and as a council member.

Is this the building that you want to represent you?

My name is Jennifer Cunningham and I live on Campbell Street in Old Town.

One of the benefits mentioned in the rezoning application for 473 South Main Street, I have a link, details the perceived financial windfall that our city will receive when the Lindsay property is rezoned and redeveloped to yield an excess of $15 million per acre of assessed value.

Before we start counting our tax revenue though, let's turn our attention to Syracuse, New York, home of CODA on Crouse, a 282 unit apartment complex just a few blocks away from Syracuse University and built by Timber Wolf Capital Partners.

Similar to the link, CODA is also marketed as luxury housing for students and young professionals.

In the case of the CODA project, the developer sought $20 million in tax breaks in order to subsidize that particular development.

Timberwolf Capital Partners leadership has stated in local Syracuse publications that because of rising labor, material, and financing costs that proceeding without 20 million dollars in various tax exemptions would make their project unfeasible.

According to public documents in Syracuse, it is my understanding that development was well underway to the tune of $10.9 million when the $20 million in tax breaks were requested by Timber Wolf and approved by Syracuse.

Since Timber Wolf has a history of using tax exemptions to make their financing work, this begs the question, will they be seeking tax exemptions for the link?

Harrisonburg's economic revitalization zone offers a real property tax exemption for new construction within the city's B-1 central business district and the city's Virginia Main Street district.

The Lindsay property is within the bounds of the Virginia Main Street District.

Based on the amount invested in new construction, $20 million and above allows for 10 years of partial exemption from taxation.

So far, the proffered mixed-use retail space states that a minimum of 2,000 square feet of retail is planned for the link.

While this equates to less than 10% of the proposed building footprint of 46,000 square feet and doesn't currently fit the 40% minimum for the tax exemption, City Council does have the power to grant an exception to the retail square footage requirement in order to qualify for the tax exemption.

Are you prepared to grapple with that decision?

Timberwell's search for someone to move the home located at 298 South Liberty Street, a structure built in 1890 and is officially a contributing resource to the downtown historic district signals that they seem to be working towards meeting the criteria for partial exemption from taxation.

New construction achieved through demolition of a contributing resource to our historic downtown district would nullify the partial tax exemption, but does moving the house count?

While no city tax incentives have been promised to Timber Wolf to capital for the link project, it is not out of the realm of possibility that they may change their design for more retail space or convince city council members in the future to grant them a tax exemption.

What does this mean?

Instead of the property being taxed at an assessed value of $15 million per acre, it's possible Timber Wolf may only pay property taxes on the current assessed value, which is around 2 million, for 10 years.

I implore our members of City Council to research the possibility before greenlighting the rezoning of 473 South Main Street.

And while I'm in full support of projects that address the housing needs of our community, particularly the needs addressed in the 2021 Comprehensive Housing Assessment and Market Study, I am adamantly opposed to subsidizing a student housing developer like what happened in Syracuse.

After factoring in the cost of this project, which may include traffic calming measures in Old Town, fixing already nearby failing intersections identified in the traffic impact analysis, a surprise purchase of the project by JMU, or granted tax exemptions, does this project really have a net fiscal benefit?

I think that the fiscal benefits of rezoning the Lindsay property and redeveloping it into a student housing complex are uncertain and possibly insignificant.

Please vote no to rezoning the 473 South Main property from R3 to B1C.

Thank you.

Okay, anyone else?

You can elevate the stand there if you need to.

Oh, you can elevate the whole podium.

There you go.

Wonderful, thank you.

Well, my name is Carl Larson.

I live at 487 South Mason Street.

My neighbors and I are eagerly awaiting the details of the public input meetings on the 473 South Main Street.

rezoning application.

While we wait on those meetings I'd like to share one very brief thought with you this evening.

In recent weeks, many people across our community have voiced deep concern about many different aspects of the rezoning application.

Just one of those many significant concerns I'd like to raise tonight is the design of the proposed building.

Rather than getting into design details tonight, I'd like to share a concern about an idea I've heard from some, which is that design is subjective, or that it can simply be brushed off as a secondary concern in this rezoning application.

Of course, everyone is entitled to personal opinion on design.

Our city's own choices, however, indicate that design is not subjective.

Our city's choices indicate that design does matter.

We have invested so much money as a community to build beautiful schools, parks, and even this new city hall building in which we're standing this evening because our community believes that good design is very important.

Even the downtown 2040 plan makes a statement about design when it states, quote, Maine and Liberty Streets are the primary front doors to downtown.

They should aspire to the highest standards in design as they reflect the first impression visitors have of downtown.

I very much appreciate that the representative for the rezoning applicant has appealed to the 2040 plan in his presentations to you.

Because of this, it's my hope that the rezoning applicant will also embrace the 2040 plan's call to the highest standards of design.

So, so, so many residents from across the city feel that the current building design we see in the renderings fall short of those highest standards.

And as I understand it, the way the proffers are currently written would allow the design to be altered after rezoning approval, either for better or for worse.

This is risky for our city.

This project is too large and the location is too important for our city to take those risks on design.

I'd like to leave you with three simple questions for your consideration if any of them may be helpful in your deliberations.

First, might it be possible to ask city staff to study how other Virginia cities safeguard design?

Second, might you consider taking steps toward creating an architectural review board as many Virginia cities already have to help protect design here in Harrisonburg?

And finally, the bottom line is, how will you as a city council ensure that the highest standards are met at our gateway to downtown so that any project here truly enhances our community?

The standard that we set here will likely guide future rezonings and influence development decisions across our city for years to come.

This choice is not only about the link, but about the long-term character, cultural, and identity of our beautiful community.

Thank you.

Good timing.

Anyone else?

You can save saving your name for this time.

A couple of things.

I was hoping that Mr. Sheets might have a chance to speak again.

We see that he was motivated to start bringing forward significant public engagement.

That's a very good thing.

I'd like to address some of the issues that are current right now and some of the issues that have been brought up.

Previously, I invited the folks who were concerned about immigrants to, in the words of one of the speakers, reach out to those most affected, reach out to those affected.

And I invited Secretary at MLKJRE.org.

Nothing.

Okay, nothing.

So there's a phenomenon that African Americans are very familiar with, activists, and that is that people are all for African American rights until you get to a certain level.

And then suddenly people are not so interested in African Americans advancing anymore.

I'll defer to the Shenandoah Black Heritage Project if they've seen this dynamic or not.

Similarly with when an immigrant, you don't know their status, speaks the language as well as you do,

and it's maybe financially doing okay or socially doing okay, suddenly we've forgotten our enthusiasm for equality.

So this is something to reflect upon and at a future point I can maybe talk about some of the dynamics in our street renaming.

how Stan Macklin really taught us so much about some of the functioning of whiteness and are we really interested in equality.

It's something that the folks who are interested in this rezoning maybe want to tune into as well.

It doesn't do, it harms your case when you don't show up for others.

And it starts to seem like, okay, maybe all of your eloquence is just to maintain your particular position.

So there's an open invitation out to those folks when somebody else's stuff is being rezoned, show up with some of that eloquence.

And you might learn some things, and this is for the gentleman who I hope will engage with my email and my phone number.

I see Ms.

Snyder just jumped on that.

That's because he is rare.

He's a rare person.

He's one of less than five percent, and council member Robinson saw me doing the surveys and saw what was covered.

Fewer than 5% of people agree with the gentleman that something should be done about houses that look a certain way.

And I suspect that really he's not in the core of that 5%.

He's probably more like, not like the people who pick up the phone to see destroyed something that somebody put their love into, destroy something that looks like the former vice mayor's house.

and just anonymously want to see that.

I didn't see that viciousness there.

I saw more of what we saw in our street renaming where we really talked to each other and people changed their heart once they were able to see what was really going on.

So I hope that with those few comments that we can really talk to each other, that some folks will go.

Secretary at MLKJRA.org and that we will think about rewilding the golf course.

repealing our aesthetic nuisance ordinances because how does somebody's house get destabilized?

I'm so surprised that the folks talked about immigrants and I had just repeated how does somebody spiral into their business, their livelihood being upset?

It started with an inoperable vehicle call.

It starts with a tall grass and weed call.

And then that makes an entire neighborhood afraid to put their head up.

I was talking outside to a journalist about civic engagement and where has it all gone.

Well, I can walk through some of those neighborhoods where everybody loves that one yard.

And in fact, the empirical, the data is that those houses will sell for more when you've got a house in a particular neighborhood and somebody is intentionally doing that.

They will sell for more.

And that's borne out here in Harrisonburg.

I can show you.

But they're afraid.

Everybody else is afraid.

Like they're afraid to come up and speak like I am because they see what happens to me.

or if it's a place where people are struggling, we know how urban renewal happened.

This is unsightly.

It's bringing down the economy.

Do something about it.

And they did.

And we have a gaping wound to this day.

So let's not repeat mistakes of the past that are standing right in front of us.

Thank you.

Okay.

I really had two concerns to address but due to time constraint I'm just going to

to address the second.

Of course, everybody knows the first, I'm just going to hit it real quick, was to have the bus drivers restrain my chair properly.

I'm going to address the second issue, what this has escalated into.

I stand, well sit, sorry, before you to address a critical matter concerning the flagrant violation of my constitutionally enshrined rights.

within this very forum.

Specifically, I was unjustly silenced and barred from exercising my freedom of expression at a prior city council assembly.

And on a subsequent occasion, the interim chief of police unlawfully denied me ingress to this agarious, sorry, affront to my fundamental liberties is utterly unacceptable and demands immediate redress.

I could not, I mean, when you come in front of the city council, the original matter, I mean, what it's escalated into is unfathomable, which was violation of my first amendment rights by the council.

maybe not by the whole council, but specifically by the mayor who wouldn't let me make a presentation.

Now, when you come in front of the council, don't you present your concerns.

But I'm not going to that.

The concerns that I am bringing in front of you tonight is a violation of my First Amendment rights.

Now, I guess I understand why Pollard by Care is an interim police chief, because you obviously don't want

A lying person to be a police chief.

Now, I have been to the magistrate about doing something about it.

Of course, they wouldn't do nothing about it.

I guess the old saying, if you are the law, you're above the law, I guess it's true.

I mean, the law to me has always been enforced.

So why isn't it being enforced to

those who make the law.

There are those people out there that do enforce the law and people who think they're above the law.

Okay, well and sub summation.

I implore the council to

reflectfully the discrepancies of rectifier and the discrepancies in the application of these policies.

The movement into a gray area not only undermines the integrity of our civic process but also sets a troubling precedent for future interactions.

I trust the council

will endeavor to restore the clarity and equity or quality that our community rightfully expects.

You know, another thing, I don't have the time right now, but another thing is making these bus stops ADA accessible.

you have bus stops in the grass, you have to take your wheelchair off of a four inch curb.

Now, I have invited the city council to anybody on the city council to do this, which of course nobody volunteered.

He followed back there, of course he didn't volunteer.

And just, I want to make this statement too.

I guess I'm going to be looking forward to the retaliation by Chief Pollard's thugs, where at the last city council meeting he refused to let me in the building.

If you have no comments, thank you.

Hopefully your cameraman back there could focus in on you.

That concludes the public comment section of the meeting.

Council, actually, I think before I turn to you, I'm going to turn to Mr. Banks, maybe, and if we can have at least on the facilitation process that we put forward, if maybe we can get a little bit of an update.

I know the public is interested.

Yeah, Mr. Brown, the City Attorney and I did get an update from the facilitation team.

The final details on what that structure is going to look like are being finalized.

They hope to have that done within the next week or so.

It does appear that the meetings will be taking place toward the end of September, beginning of October.

Well, you know, I don't know that it would be the city will be pushing that communication out.

The facilitation team has been very clear about remaining as neutral as possible.

And certainly we were not requiring this.

We were asking them to step in and work with the developer to provide this public engagement.

All right, so and I think, you know, for the folks who are following this, I think interest in trying to figure out what the next steps are.

And so it seems like one, September 23rd,

won't be a date where they can kind of come through with a completed facilitation process.

They're likely extending past that date, but on the 23rd, the facilitators, the developer can be here and make a presentation, give some information about that.

Since council set a process here, it seems, and it's up to council to bring this back to the agenda, that September 23rd would not be a date

Thank you for the question.

take up an action until a facilitated process is completed at some point.

It seems how that would be.

And of course the other issue could be, you know, in the event that there are substantial changes to the proposal that it would necessarily go back to Planning Commission.

So there is a process that could trigger that back to Planning Commission

There would be a public hearing there following that, then it would come back.

So it sounds like a number of steps that could happen before it comes back to Council.

But nothing, I would say September 23rd is not a date where Council would take action, but there could be an update the developer gives on the facilitation process.

Hopefully before that time, there will be some communication from the developer

to the community about the facilitation process and how that will proceed.

Is that correct?

Okay.

I just wanted to get some clarity.

I see some folks here.

Just add some clarity a little bit.

and on what basis?

And if you are planning to communicate with the developer or people who are in favor, are you going to contact the people who are not in favor?

So I mean to be transparency, like they know exactly that we are not selecting that like based on favor of somebody or not.

So they know exactly.

So we want to have.

Yeah, I think I can speak to that.

Now, I will say that, you know, City Council asking city staff to pull together facilitation is within the discussion of roles and responsibilities.

We are not participating

Nor did we choose facilitators.

So to make clear, we have an abundance of professional facilitators here in the community.

And after this process and after the public hearing, two private facilitators, a facilitator from Eastern Mennonite University and two facilitators from James Madison University all reached out.

and we had an initial meeting to discuss this.

Those connections were made.

At that point, really, I felt like I had followed through on the action asked for by City Council.

At this point, as you all indicated, you all tabled the agenda item, asked for a facilitated community engagement.

That engagement is between the developer and the community.

And the facilitators have been very clear in the two meetings that we've had, just virtual meetings, that neutrality of the facilitation is very important to them.

The developer?

Yes.

No, he did not select the facilitators.

As I said, there was an initial meeting between the developer, the developer's representative, and approximately six or seven professional facilitators, academics and private, who do facilitation work.

Again, I don't know what that structure is going to look like because that is the development between the Timber Wolf and the facilitation team understanding that they need to provide an opportunity for engagement from the public.

Yeah.

Oh, it's very front of mind to the councilmen as well.

I mean, again, I'm not participating in this.

I think, you know,

suggesting community engagement necessarily in and of itself indicates, and I think should indicate to the developer, and if they don't take this, they can hear this now, that it's to engage community folks who are in favor, not in favor of the project, who don't know much about the project.

They have to do some public engagement.

It's up to them to make that decision, but it'll be us to determine whether there was good

Two events actually happened on the same day, August 29th.

We had a great opportunity to meet.

It was like Worldcoming.

All the city members were there, so we attended the Worldcoming meeting with the EMU president, President Dikes.

and the other thing, and we shared everything about the cooperation between the EMU and the city and the future plans and the other one we had, I with Mayor Reed, the city school liaison meeting and we heard from the superintendent like update about the alternate of MTC

and like the new vision of alternate MPC.

Okay, a couple of things not as directly related to city business.

I've been on the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, the EENR of the National League of Cities.

We're doing the policy statement revision now.

on a couple of calls.

Also on the leadership certificate program, we're talking about data centers and how to both mitigate their harms and provide benefits to the community.

And I've relayed our ordinance requiring data centers to be only in the industrial zone and by special use permit as a model that works well because we can supply conditions to those special use permits.

And a final note, next Friday, September 19th, is the first day of early voting.

Of course we attended the city briefing with President Dikes that Council Member Alsadun was talking about and it was very refreshing to hear from her, her willingness to work with the city.

and to become a more part of that conversation that Harrisonburg has two colleges and not just one.

So I feel like both her and President Smith are going to be great to work with.

On the 28th, quite a few of us went to the Chamber of Commerce Presidential Address at Bridgewater College with a high education

Higher Education Update.

I thought that was a great event.

Learned some great things about our local college presidents.

Let's see here on, oh, this coming up Saturday, September the 13th, we have our local African American Festival from 12 to 6, and it will be at the Ralph Sampson Park, up closer to where the Futsal courts are.

because we now have a sprinkler, our water park down in the lower part of the park where the festival used to be held.

Our community connectors team will be there to speak with people about the small area plans.

It's been mentioned several times this evening.

And then on Saturday, September the 20th, we have our

Northeast Neighborhood Community Luncheon hosted by Nina and SVBHP to continue that conversation about prioritizing our plan together for our Northeast Neighborhood.

Excuse me, and that will be from 11 to 2 at Lucy F. Sims Continuing Education Center.

You mentioned the JMU and EMU president meetings and I think all of us have had the same reaction that we feel we have some good partners there with university presidents and I was struck that both President Dicus and President Schmitt made proactive proposals on programs with the city to explore and continue to work with the city and I thought that was

I'm very welcome to be here and we'll see.

The proof will be in the pudding as we move forward of how that works.

This week, so on Friday, I'll be meeting with the Virginia Municipal League Legislative Committee, so we'll be setting our legislative goals for this coming General Assembly time.

So a lot of those will be one of the primary goals for VML is really around transportation funding to ensure that the matching funds and the funds that have been previously appropriated or looked at, budgeted, continue to happen in our localities.

And then the stormwater fund, we're looking to see that we can continue getting

That's money for that, which is a significant amount of money from the state and something that we need pretty significantly.

here in Harrisonburg, so that'll be on Friday.

And so we'll set that agenda.

And once that's approved, we'll vote on it at the VML meeting in October, but I'll send that out to council members so you can take a look at that document before we go to the VML meeting.

Something that City Manager Banks and I completed last week, week before.

actually was a course, AI for the Public Good, at the University of Virginia.

So both, Senior Manager Banks, myself, and then the other city staff did this six week course, found it very useful.

It really looked at what are the ways, the proper ways that city government, and really I guess it was kind of federal state government there, so we had some folks from around

from the country, but mostly from the Commonwealth.

They're looking at what AI means for your city, what the risks are for it, what the benefits are for it, what are the things you need to be mindful of.

And I think, one, we've done a good job in the city and being deliberate and intentional about how we are engaging.

A particular tool that we allow staff to use, govai.com,

is a self-contained AI source, keeps scrubs for private data that doesn't go out, trains only on the data that we kind of set it to train on, kind of knows who we all are as it responds to us.

I think it's a good tool for us to use and staff now are starting to look at utilizing that and I think at some point we'll have

a policy that comes out that governs how the city can approach and it'll be one I think that we also want to make sure that we engage the public in so the public can see and transparently see how the city is viewing AI, how they can offer feedback on that and something that is coming down to cities all over the country.

and so it's something we do have to step into.

And I actually will be presenting on this at the National League of Cities accomplishment.

It's not League of Cities, so I'll be a presenter on a panel on that there.

And then... I think that's...

I do also want to thank the folks who came up to speak about what's happening in our community with ICE.

You know, they're speaking here because there are many residents who wouldn't be able to come here out of great fear, speaking for themselves.

And that's where we are, that there are folks who in our community who can't go where they would normally go.

don't feel safe many places in our community.

And so it is something of, I think, great concern to all of us.

It's something that knowing how a city can respond responsibly and safely for our residents is a challenge to understand what are the ways that we can address this that doesn't put residents in further danger.

It also ensures them that we care about them

and you're concerned about this issue, so I appreciate that folks are bringing the stories to us, telling us the very human stories, the very horrific stories we're seeing in our community.

Anything else, City Manager?

Yes, sir.

Nothing else?

Okay, unless anyone else has any comments, that will conclude our City Council meeting tonight.