City Council Meeting   11/25/2025

Yes.

I'll call our Tuesday, November 25th, 2025.

City Council meeting to order.

Mayor Reed?

Present.

City Manager Banks?

Here.

City Attorney Brown?

Here.

Vice Mayor Fleming?

Here.

Council Member Alsadun?

Here.

Council Member Robinson?

Here.

Interim Chief Pollard?

Here.

If you would please stand, if you wish, for a moment of silence or a private prayer and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Madam Mayor, before we get into the agenda, I think we have one housekeeping item.

Council member Dent is not present.

She's joining us from, I believe, her home here in Harrisonburg.

And as you're aware, council has passed a policy that permits a council member to attend virtually under certain circumstances, and one of those would be

the council member declares the location in which I again I believe is her home here in Harrisonburg and the reason for her appearing virtually which I believe in this case is illness and there has to be a quorum physically here which there is and with that council also has to approve

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right, we'll go into our consent agenda.

Any items placed on a consent agenda shall be removed and taken up as a separate matter.

If so, requested by any member of our council.

Second.

Any discussion?

Councilmember Dent.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Adam Fletcher, Director of Community Development.

I have just one item to present to you this evening.

This is a zoning ordinance amendment for multiple sections of the zoning ordinance, really stemming from one particular use that we want to define and create and add into the zoning ordinance, but as we began to

draft the ordinance of sort of a domino effect.

We realized we needed to make more amendments to a particular code section, all of which are related to medical uses in different capacities within the zoning ordinance.

Earlier this summer, I'll tell you, we learned quite a bit very quick in a very short period of time about a use that, as you've read in your packet, known as an inpatient substance use disorder treatment facility.

We had questions about in what zoning districts such a use could operate, and then after answering that and placing it into a category, we also then had building permit applied for to go on an R3 property.

That occurred back in September.

The more we learned about this type of facility, while we definitely recognize the benefits of having such a facility in the city for our community, we also learned from many different areas that it can also cause somewhat of a strain on the impact of some of our service providers.

as well as just the overall continuum of care.

So we really wanted to bring this matter to your attention, defining the zoning ordinance and then be able to allow for community engagement when such facilities begin to operate in the city or want to operate in the city.

As I noted, the building permit that was applied for back in September could create an opportunity that on this R3 property the use could get established, they could gain a vested right, making that if you all were to approve the zoning ordinance amendments that we're talking about this evening,

If they do fulfill their building permit operation, they could become immediately non-conforming.

And if they want to expand that facility or add to the facility in any way, they would have to apply for a special use permit, which is what the ordinance amendment that I'm proposing to you this evening is to create.

So let me get into some of the specifics here.

Super high level here, as you notice, there's a bunch of different zoning ordinance text amendments in multiple sections, but I was really focusing in on the inpatient substance use disorder treatment facility.

We currently do not have a definition for this type of use, but it was categorized into a use category, which is shown on the screen, section 10348.3 subsection 10,

which is a sort of all-encompassing category that captures many of the uses we're really going to be defining and amending here this evening if you wish to move forward with that.

But we categorize this type of use within the category shown on the screen here that's bulleted.

So this inpatient treatment facility is currently allowed

in the R3 district by right where all of these other uses that are on the screen are also allowed.

So hospitals, convalescent or nursing homes, funeral homes, medical offices, and professional offices.

Professional offices is a category that then has many subcategories.

Things like doctor's office, dentist's office, architects, engineers, just to kind of capture what all those professional offices are.

So, as we began to learn more about this, we realized, hey, we really need to pinpoint this type of use and then we saw the opportunity to make some further improvements within the zoning ordinance to define many of the other uses that are in your packet here this evening.

This originally began at Planning Commission in October.

So we presented the Zoning Warts Amendments in October, on October the 8th, the Planning Commission.

And they had unanimously recommended approval, six to zero.

At that time, there were still only six members on the Planning Commission.

But it was immediately after that that we had learned.

It was one of these definitely learning moments and sort of a mind-blowing moment for several staff members to realize that we had begun that process outside of what was required by the state code.

In the state code, section 15.2.22.86, subsections A.7, it specifically notes that zoning ordinance amendments should be initiated by one, the resolution of this body, so the governing body, which in our case would be city council, by motion of the local planning commission or by petition of owners, contract purchasers, owner's agents for things when they go through zoning ordinance amendments.

When we learned of this, talked to council about this, we realized yes, we need to change our processes and immediately did so, and then even called a special meeting and planning commission to keep this amendment on track.

And we did that in October, at the end of October on October 30th and brought planning commission back to their session and then asked for their motion to direct staff to continue with the zoning ordinance amendments to which they did.

and then we heard the same zoning rights amendments with slight tweaks at the beginning of this month in November and then wanted to bring it to you here this evening.

So this type of use we are proposing for it to be and Pam if you might help me here.

Oh, would help to turn the mouse on.

The proposed definition for inpatient substance use disorder treatment facility shown on the screen.

It is a facility licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and it is providing accommodation to folks that need this treatment on a 24 hour per day basis, which is unlike some of the outpatient facilities that we have already in the city of Harrisonburg where those

are facilities designed to allow for people to receive treatment locally within part-time programs.

This allows people to receive their treatment, go back to school, go back to work, go back to their homes, whereas an inpatient facility is 24 hours a day, can last weeks, if not months, whatever the individual might need for their assistance.

So what we are proposing is for this particular use to be permitted only by special use permit in the R3 district, where it's permitted by right today, as well as by special use permit in the B2 general business district.

Along with this amendment, as I noted, it sort of created a domino effect.

We began to see reasons to make amendments to many of our other already defined term uses in the zoning ordinance as well as to add some clarity for some existing uses.

And those are just very briefly described to you on the screen.

So what we are proposing in this amendment is

is to add a definition of hospital as currently not defined and to treat it differently than we do today which recognizing that it is a rather intense use that to remove it by right in the R3 district which is the only location in the zoning ordinance that it is permitted and to relocate it to the B2 district to allow it by right in the B2 district.

We also want to add a definition for an institutional care facility, which that in itself has subcategories, one of which is a nursing home, which we are also further proposing to define and amend.

And then change some definitions, assisted living facilities, slight change of definition for family, nursing home, and also for professional offices.

We recognized also that there was some confusion in the zoning arts about the terms clinic, medical clinic, medical office.

So we wanted to align those appropriately.

So changing the term clinic to medical clinic and then getting rid of references to medical office.

It was just confusing and it wasn't consistent throughout the zoning ordinance.

On the screen here is just a summary of all of the different uses that we're proposing to amend.

So those uses here on the left hand side and then you can see in the table where they would be permitted in which districts and how they would be permitted.

So whether they would be permitted by right or by special use permit.

Two of the bigger changes here is that we're adding that inpatient substance use treatment facility to the zoning ordinance and allowing by special use permit in the two districts and then that big change for hospitals being that we're just completely eliminating it from the R3 and then allowing it by right in B2.

I will try to answer any questions you all have.

The Planning Commission, again, recommended unanimously for you all to consider approving this request.

This time it was five to zero.

Yes.

Yes, do you see me?

Yep, the tweak was by the way that we had originally for the October Planning Commission meeting, we had not yet found the confusing references to both medical clinics and medical offices and

And during that original October meeting, we were to have to go back and make that change.

But because of the opportunity to go back and review it again, we just went ahead and made those changes.

So really, for all intents and purposes, not much of a tweak.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Thank you, Adam.

I'll open this item up for public hearing.

If anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

Panayotissianakouros, city resident.

I'd like to split my comments into two parts, one on process and the other on the substance of this application.

First of all, on substance.

People that I discussed this with built on some concerns that I've raised about the economic motives that can potentially be driven by such facilities and I raised some concerns at Planning Commission.

To that, a person pointed out to me that the kind of facility we're thinking about.

Number one, we should, as I've said, be thinking about the people and the structures that are putting people into those facilities and not thinking about keeping those facilities out of certain neighborhoods because that implies putting them into other neighborhoods.

At building on that, this person advised me that this really is intertwined with homelessness, with being unhoused, and that a caution to be that we shouldn't turn these into makeshift, in effect, shelters for the unhoused.

We should solve the underlying issues that are displacing people to begin with.

For a long time the Martin Luther King Jr.

Way Coalition has talked about avoiding displacing people to begin with.

So previously we heard the Child Services Act being discussed and there was a mention of being babysitters.

Well, if we had babysitters, mentors, 10 years ago we might have fewer people needing substance abuse treatment.

So we really need to be looking at

root core issues as we think about how we plan around these facilities.

Second, about process.

Long, long ago, I asked a person who was running for city council if the city should be run for the benefit of city staff or for the benefit of the people.

And this person said, without hesitation, of course it should be run for the people.

Anything else would be the tail wagging the dog.

And I think that what we've seen in the state code here is that the people should be driving the changes that happen in our policies and procedures.

It shouldn't be that staff has to deal with the nuisance of getting public input as they go about the business of running the city.

Now how that plays in here, there was some skepticism expressed by Councilmember Dent at Planning Commission around this issue.

Well, I would suggest that the lengthy process that this would entail with all kinds of preliminaries being put on the record would have prevented a failure and disgruntlement like what we're seeing around the apartment complex, the suites, what's it called?

The big apartment that Old Town is up in arms about if we had gotten heads up sooner.

possibly people might have gotten a heads up that the roses was going to be sold.

So there would be time to plan instead of having to adapt.

So process is important.

And this is something that's coming up a lot.

Mr. Fletcher has said that this is very rare.

Well, now we're not at the place of, you know, every council meeting we have one versus one or another procedural issue like this.

At the root of this is an attitude toward public input.

and Council Member Robinson at input process for the Northeast Small Area Plan, Luncheon, when I described my role, said that she was not there as a council member and said, so watch it.

that was a threat from a sitting council member and that had a chilling effect on other people in that process.

People I encountered on the street afterward talked about it and then we saw this repeated this week again with members of the public struggling to be heard and finally the outside facilitator acknowledged what he was seeing and he said, I know it's scary but we need you to be involved.

That shouldn't be in our civic engagement culture.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none in person.

Thank you.

I will close public hearing on this item.

Well, it seems the ordinance adjustments here are really about clarifying definitions and using the special use permit is something we've done with other issues as well.

So when we have particular facilities or types of facilities that we went to,

to look in the context of being appropriately placed.

We've used a special use permit.

We've done that for data centers.

We've done that for, what else do we do?

What else do we do that for?

One other item.

For the Airbnb's, right?

So it seems in accordance with stuff we've done before on facilities that we want to have more oversight on as they come in.

Eloquently and comprehensively, Vice Chair Porter talked about this issue in Planning Commission, the October 30th meeting, the special meeting about while he truly supports this kind of facility, they are not all created equal.

And there might be concerns about the discharge protocols and the services needed.

So all the more reason to vet them closely with a special use permit.

That's all.

Thank you.

Yeah, I can concur with that.

Yeah, that, um, these are facilities we need.

Um, and, um, but I think Vice Chair Porter raised some issues about how folks were discharged, and I think that's important.

Um, yeah, so I'll make a motion to approve

and the zoning ordinance.

Do I need to read through all of the sections?

Second.

Any more discussion?

Councilmember Robinson?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming?

Aye.

Councilmember Alsadun?

Aye.

Aye.

We're going to our regular items.

Thanks for taking my time tonight to just give you an update on OCP and what we have been up to and what we're seeing in our data.

Y'all know about us, you know our mission, the community center and our kitchen.

We continue to serve a large number of people coming through our doors.

Every day as we see the numbers coming up, we'll see our numbers steadily begin to rise in the past three, four months.

Oh, I did it again.

What we've seen so far, and this is through October, so we've seen 890 unique individuals through the first 10 months of this year.

And what that means also is we're flirting at around 12,000 meals served.

And our key demographic, it was

earlier this year it was the 25 to 55 or 54 range but we are seeing a little uptick in our older elderly population so that's why I put in there the the 25 to 64 which is a broad a very broad range but you'll be able to see it in in our numbers and so as we look at

You can kind of see how things have fluctuated.

January, if you remember January, January earlier this year was very cold.

And we had those few nights that were well below zero.

And then in the summer, we went down a little bit and then went back up in April, May and June.

April and May, June and July.

Typically what we see in June and July is we see a lot of people move from, or some of our people move from shelters into going to live outside again because it's freedom, it's living on their own terms.

And so we kind of see an uptick, but as in August, September, October of this year,

We're flirting right around that 200 unique individuals a month and so we don't see that changing anytime soon just by the number of people that come through and that we see on a day-to-day basis.

Our age breakdown, as you can see there, that middle age, 25 to 64, is where the majority of our people are, which is consistent to last year, for the most part.

This is working age individuals that can, and are willing in many cases, willing to have jobs and find jobs,

and do work, it's just difficult for them to get hired for some reason or another or it's difficult for them to work continually because of some other issues that they may have.

Gender, we're staying pretty close with women, right around that 60 to 65 range.

Men overwhelmingly are the majority of the people that come through our place.

Veterans, as you can see, we're beginning to see more.

And I don't know why that is right now because veterans still have a lot more resources out there than non-veterans do.

But we are beginning to see more veterans come through and need our services.

Thanks to our two shelters here in town, the Salvation Army and Open Doors with the Navigation Center, we still see those numbers are full.

And those numbers remain pretty high in the 120, 125s.

Those sleeping outside, like I said, in June and July, we began to see that shift where people move outside.

But then in August, it really

In September we should be seeing that shift.

But we're not, August we saw the shift where more people began to move inside.

But September and October was really interesting to us because yes it was a little warmer, but we're still seeing that high 95, 94 people that are choosing to sleep outside.

Let's see.

Those are the big numbers that I want to really bring before your attention tonight.

We can talk about directions forward if you want to, if you have questions there.

But those are the big numbers that I wanted to present to you all tonight.

With the shelters that we have, if you remember last year, we saw the big shift

when the navigation center opened, you know, our numbers went from 90 to 60.

Okay.

Go forward one.

You can click now.

Yeah, that's it.

Okay.

And so we saw those numbers shift, right, because they moved indoors to open doors.

But we are seeing our numbers stay high right now.

And again, I don't exactly know why that reason is, but it is something that we're very aware of and we're trying to pay attention to.

and I will say too as I was going through October's numbers and the names of all of our people

Probably half of them weren't even on January through September.

There was no prior time that they were on our checked in during the day.

So this is potentially an aggregate increase, not necessarily

that you have a drop in August, but if you have an aggregate increase, then you're going to see a higher number.

It's possible, yeah.

Yeah, it's possible for sure.

And that was one of the things that was actually shocking to me because most of the time when I'm working through all the names and the numbers and all of that kind of stuff,

I'll see the same names over and over and over again and we can, you know, I can represent that with our data.

Yeah.

A couple of things I'm interested in.

Yeah.

And I see we have other directors here with you, I assume, which I love.

Oh.

I was getting ready to compliment the fact that y'all kind of stick together.

And so now, maybe it's not even going to make sense, but I kind of want to know what is the

It's been my vision that OCP and the Navigation Center

work together, whereas the day side of programming comes from you, your organization, and then Open Doors takes care of, you know, the night.

And so, and I know there's been some conflict or how can that, not conflict, but there's been,

coming from open doors down to our place as they leave in the morning to come and get breakfast at OCP and then utilize our services there.

There are times that since we have shifted from pre-housing case management to helping people stay housed,

that we will refer back to Open Doors to work with SHLPA and the employees up there.

And so we tend to work closely from my perspective.

Eventually.

A lot of that comes with paying staff and funding and that kind of stuff.

Has there been any collaboration between you and Open Doors as far as looking into grants or other avenues that would help?

help OCP financially be able to fill that need.

Because I know, like you just mentioned, that's the problem, not having staffing through the day.

Right.

Not any type of collaboration with Open Doors on that side of things.

But I will let you know that I'll be sending an offer letter to them.

our new advancement specialist tomorrow and so that will that will help us for sure.

Yeah but the great thing I think you know one of the things that I told Ben Cline this when I when I met with Ben Cline a couple months ago is like you know one of the great things about OCP is is we've been here for 20 plus years

without needing a lot of state funding or any federal funding.

But I think to fill that gap we definitely have to have some folks step up to the plate.

Agreed.

and that's the beautiful thing of I think that's great about this community is as you can see is the housing people are here for sure is that we all do work very closely together and just this week we've been able to or last week we got an email from

An employee from the continuum of care here in Harrisonburg is like what about this person this person this person and and the collaboration between Four or five of us.

Yeah, I agree.

And other cities are noticing what we're doing.

Yeah.

You know, I would just like to see more programming.

Yeah.

Oh, me too.

On both sides, but particularly during the day.

Yeah, me too.

And a lot of that programming really comes down to, or I should say part, an aspect of that programming comes down to

our participants and our clients wanting to do it.

And I would probably say over the last probably three months there's not a lot of motivation.

that we're seeing to make healthy changes in people's lives.

And we haven't, given my time's limited here as the Executive Director of Two and a Half Years, but we haven't seen, we've seen glimpses of it like a month or a month and a half, but we haven't seen it sustained like it is right now.

And we can speculate.

We can say there's a lot of things driving that.

Housing, one, is a big issue here, is always a big issue.

That if someone's on the list of whether it be HRHA or whether it be the private landlords that we work with, we all have long lists.

and we're all trying to do what we can do.

But at the same time, if someone sees their name near the bottom, it's hard to sustain hope when you're near the bottom and you don't see any movement or don't see a lot of movement.

Let me say it that way.

Yeah.

I would say it's the former.

Even though October was was difficult was different for us because you know, I like I said, we you know We saw that that increase in the number of people New people but most of people are here That the first nine months have have been here and are trying to find are trying to do something But you know, like I said, you know the last

three, four months.

It's just, it's been difficult, but it's been difficult across the United States.

Well, one, I hope your advancement offer is accepted.

Me too.

So you mentioned your age is trending up as a whole.

Have you seen, and I know we don't have a lot of temporary housing, we don't have a lot of supportive and permanent supportive housing here.

Are you seeing any changes at all with people's ability to get in

step through the process to temporary or permanent supportive housing to temporary housing.

Notable changes, I mean if you talk to any one of us, we were just talking about it right before the meeting was happening.

You know, the notable changes, noticeable changes that are going to be happening with the continuum of care, with the new NOFO that's out.

But also HUD is in enigma right now.

And Michael could probably talk better about it than I could.

But there's, you know, the changes that they're making with,

with permanent supportive housing, the changes they're making with SNAP.

So I guess just with a continuum of care, which is our kind of valley network,

Yes, a portion of it and then it's going to be combined and then cut again and so there's, yeah, it's everybody's guessing game right now.

It's everybody's guessing game.

Thank you.

Yeah, I want to share something that I was able to visit the place and so people who they were enjoying their food with dignity.

That's really interesting.

Of course, when there's someone like Matt having the passion to serve all those people,

and definitely they feel that dignity is being protected and you see that they are happy actually with that place I mean despite their suffering and their

problems that they have, but at least there's a place like that place with a man that's showing them their respect and their passion and their love.

And I think that's a good model for our community and it's an opportunity for our residents who is able to volunteer and wants to give back for this community to come to that place.

So really you will see the need and the people that really deserve like an hour from your time to serve.

Yeah, and it's not just me, it's my staff and all the volunteers that come through here.

We always tell people that the minute you walk through that door, you're going to get love.

We're going to love you, no matter who you are, where you come from, what's happened, or even where you're going.

It's about love for us, and so that's important.

Future directions, we announced it at our gala, but future directions are we are planning to build a new community center, add a property to be announced.

but also along with that provide housing to build some housing units and so depending on what the property can handle in a way that we're trying to develop, I'm working with our architects right now, that we still have a community home filled to it but also we can get as many

medium to high density as possible on it.

It'll be in a different place.

Sure.

I just wanted to chime in.

I'm thrilled to hear that you're planning on expanding your housing offerings because that's such a great development that OCP has already done.

They're on Reservoir Street for people coming out of homelessness.

So, thank you for expanding your services as well as what you're already doing.

Yeah, thanks Council Person Dent.

And one of the great things there too is we really, we appreciate the history with Sam and his vision to get that Reservoir Street up and running.

But we also realized to make a dent, the gentleman was talking about root causes,

of homelessness, to make a dent we have to be significant.

Any more?

Thank you for your presentation.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

Thank you for your work.

Thank you for all your work.

Thank you Madam Mayor.

Council has before it a resolution authorizing and approving the purchase and renovation of 227 North Main Street in Harrisonburg into a mixed-use housing and commercial development by HRHA.

HRHA would like to purchase that property that we've all known as Glen's Fair Price over the years and convert it into a mixed-use development of I believe 16 residential units and some office space and the authority needs council's approval to do so.

Well, I'll start.

So I actually had a meeting with Michael.

I talked to Gil as well.

And I want you to kind of go over some of the conversation that we had about your vision for the property.

One thing was I had a couple of concerns, one being safety and what's actually going on in the building.

which we talked about the outside people that are coming in to the property and how can we

control that.

And so Michael had some data from HPD that I wasn't aware of that showed how many times they actually have been called out to the facility, what the charges were, how many trespasses they have issued, evictions behind it, because some people are allowing people to come in there.

My main concern is that the people who live there are safe, right?

And so if we're letting people from the outside come in that doesn't belong there and they're creating the problems that we're hearing about, then we need to aggressively go after that.

The other issue that I had or what I wanted more of is by them buying this property, I feel like, and I told Michael and I told Gil as well, if you put offices there,

then you will be seen there.

I think that would help the property manager who was in the building if there was additional offices there that there's more people on site.

And so he showed me

the plan where I think you're putting at least 10 to 12 offices in that building, which would be more of HRHA leadership on site.

The other thing we've talked about is how to the redevelopment or the upgrade of the property.

and how it's needed because it's an old building and some of the upgrades that they're looking to do would make a significant impact of how the people are living.

now in there.

And one thing that I really like was we talked about creating almost like a garden or a patio space in the back of the facility where people can gather and be instead of sitting out in the front of the facility.

and have a nice place in the back.

So, I know Monica you had some concerns as well, but the added information that he gave me especially surrounding the trespasses was something significant for me.

because I need you to manage that.

Like we get, Monica was just telling me that she's already received some folks from the inside talking about what's going on.

We have to aggressively manage the people that are going in and out of there and what's happening.

Well, you have to manage, we're not managing.

And so the only way that I feel like you can do that is to have more of your staff

at that location.

And when people are doing bad things, we got to get them out of there, right?

We got to trespass the people out of there, and we got to make sure the people that are living there are safe.

They're our most vulnerable people in that community, right?

Did you want to say?

My biggest concern is safety.

after hour safety specifically.

I've talked with quite a few people who live at Line Weaver and the biggest phrase that I heard was I don't feel safe there after hours.

So it's that after hours time when there's all sorts of extra stuff going on, when people don't feel comfortable and safe even behind a locked door.

And so what can HRHA do to make people be able to live, not in fear, you know, in their own homes?

And so that element that's coming in, those outsiders that are coming in are being let in by

Folks who live there, but they're not tormenting the folks who are letting them in.

They're tormenting the other folks who say, I don't feel safe.

And so, this has kind of been an ongoing problem there, and I know we can't work 24 hours around the clock, but I feel like we owe it to folks to at least have some sort of safety plan, safety protocol,

After hours protection, I'm not sure, but I would feel, I wouldn't stay there if I had people randomly just bang, bang, bang, bang on my door as they walk down the hall at 1.30 in the morning, you know, scaring me, but then laughing as they continue walking.

I don't know what you need to do, but something needs to be done.

And so I didn't have any conversations with anybody.

Tiffany did reach out to me and I was unable to get back in touch with her.

But I just feel like we need to do more at this property before we open it up and potentially have the same problem next door because they'll be leaving

after hours.

No one that I've talked to has said during the day someone's letting so and so in and they're staying there sleeping in the hallways overnight or standing around the hallways and they're scaring me.

These were incidents that I heard of that were after management or whoever's on guard during the day has left.

And really one person hasn't been able to handle that building.

I think it's good that you'll have at least 10 other offices in the building because I think that folks will see that there are a lot of folks there and they'll maybe tighten up.

But I just don't feel comfortable that we have a good enough plan in effect as it stands now.

I didn't see your numbers, but even with the numbers that Mayor Reed talked about, I heard probably just as many complaints from people who live there.

who are afraid, Michael.

They're afraid.

And these are older folks, folks with disabilities, mental impairments.

They're afraid.

And so that just makes me sick.

So I don't know what to tell you.

I don't know how to tell you to manage that, but I'm hoping that,

If I can respond, I wanted to stop you from talking.

Safety and security is our top priority, too.

It's part of our mission, that's what we're about, and it bothers us also if people feel unsafe or insecure within the properties that we own and manage.

We work through our partnerships to be able to help address that, and one of those key partnerships is also our residents.

and having them work with us when they either feel like they are being preyed upon or they feel in unsafe situations.

We have installed and implemented a number of different strategies to improve safety and protocols within our building.

That includes an updated camera system, a new key fob system to control interest rates.

So if we do have an individual that's walking down the hallway at 1 o'clock, 1-3 in the morning, we get reports on that.

We are able to identify who those individuals are.

and issue a no trespassing notice against those.

It also gives us an opportunity to work with that resident who's letting those individuals in.

Usually we have a three-step process when they are letting guests in that are not following the rules and regulations.

It all kind of depends on the severity of the behavior, but usually it's more important for them to file a no trespassing notice than us as a builder.

And then if they do not file and those guests or visitors they have continue to make problems, then we focus on those residents and unfortunately we have to evict them if they don't comply with those rules.

It is challenging because we have to go through the landlord-tenant process to be able to address that.

So if it's a minor situation, we have to issue what's called a 2130 notice.

So, you know, 21-day period so that they don't have any problems and then that notice is dropped.

Or we can issue a 30-day termination, which usually takes about three to four months in regard to being able to evict someone, even with severe crimes or activities.

Some of the data that I show of you within your packet shows that about 30% of the residents are elderly, and the other 70% are people with disabling conditions.

So it's a very diverse group, and as we all know, people's perceptions in regard to safety varies in regard to who you are and your experiences with it.

Not to say that everyone's perception is important and we want to value and make sure that everyone feels as safe as possible.

But we all deal with a diverse group of individuals that sometimes have difficulties and we work with them at times if they can manage those difficulties.

allow them to stay.

If they don't, aren't able to manage those challenges, then unfortunately we have to go through that process to have them not continue to stay within our properties.

We do have a number of calls from the police, fire, and rescue.

We had over 550 some calls.

Over 50% of those were those for health relay issues.

The top call was for no trespassing.

Individuals that Mayor Reed talked about that were creating problems within our building.

Specifically in the line we have apartments.

During this last year we've had 19 of us.

Only three of those individuals were all residents.

The other 16 were guests or visitors outside the building.

Trespassing, public intoxication were the top challenges with that.

And so it's a process that we have to work with and all success is directly relayed to all our residents working with us to be able to manage visitors and the safety within the building.

We have the ability to, once we can identify who that individual is and if we have the tenant working with us, be able to keep that person out of the building.

But if they have a relationship with that person, they allow them in, they create a disturbance, then that responsibility for that behavior is directly with that resident.

And then they take the, have to deal with the enforcement challenges or the enforcement activities that we have to implement to be able to address that.

So it is a challenging issue at times.

Just last week, Tuesday, I was telling the mayor, we had an incident where a resident had a guest come in.

She was cooking them dinner.

After she left, this individual had what was reported as a psychotic outburst.

Well, yelling and screaming occurred in the unit.

A lot of the residents gathered, they called the police.

The police came, they escorted them out.

Those are some of the challenges that we face.

You know, it was reported could have been drug behavior or mental health issue, but that hasn't been determined yet.

But those are, you know, just a typical example of sometimes issues that we face with.

You know, it hasn't been an ongoing problem with this resident in regard to this one visitor, but, you know, they're all challenges people face.

And we are very unique because, as I tell the staff, we are usually the last housing option for people before they go into homelessness and the very first housing option for them coming out of homelessness.

Many of these non-profits that are here, standing behind me, are all partners.

And we work very closely together to house individuals.

And these are, again, some of the most vulnerable individuals in our community.

The average income for residents in the jail poly is about $12,000 annually.

So all residents are living on about $1,000 a month.

So that's telling you they either have SSI or SSDI.

We feel strongly that this will be a positive activity for the resident sale.

Upgrading the units is not only benefits them in regard to higher quality living, but also will improve hopefully the dignity and responsibility of maintaining those units.

We've seen that in many of our housing projects that we've developed or renovated them.

Franklin Heights, Commerce Village.

So, we believe that that will also occur here with my requirements.

It is an adaptive reuse.

It is also a preservation of affordable housing.

If we do not do something with the line we ran at, its continuation as affordable housing is going to be greatly challenged.

And it's also an opportunity for us to expand housing within a local community.

As we talked about the 16 units and the office space below it, and you should have a diagram within your packet in regard to that.

Like the mayor said, right now we have an informal community space out behind the building.

Thanks to Gary Stitelore, who's the owner of the Stitelore building, he's allowed the residents to be able to gather back there and have like a community space.

And our plan is to make that a permanent spot for them.

So that they have an opportunity to be able to have space that they can be able to have a community.

One of the key points is our building is a community.

There was a fire alarm that occurred just this past week.

or our maintenance director, Dwayne Bontrangle was down there to inspect the, you know, the situation.

And he said, you know, it just stuck out to him how the residents kind of gathered around and supported the other residents as they, you know, dealt with this incident.

So it's something that we all have ongoing dedication to be able to address.

I think you know one of the challenges with the two building complex there is I don't think this is what you would build today or what you would decide to build to support this vulnerable population so I think the structure itself

is what you would not want to have, which doesn't, a mitigator doesn't change the need to create the safety there, right?

It seems like what you put together, though, is a step in that direction, I think, on these buildings themselves.

These units will be redone.

I guess all the units in that building will be redone.

I think that will, as you said, create a place that is new for folks.

They'll see the investment that is made for their building.

It's often not something I think folks who are in this vulnerable situation to see.

They aren't developers that want to come in and house folks that can't pay the rents that those developers would need.

But I think seeing the investment that's done,

And that's not easy to do, I know it's not easy to do.

I've been with the housing authority and being able to put that type of change in a building that is not very suitable really, not that appropriate, but is the one that's there that you inherited.

Being able to put those type of changes, I think residents, and hopefully residents will see that.

and it will give them a place that feels like there's an investment in them, some dignity to that.

And I also think that the, you know, with the building next door, with the former Glynn's Fair Price Building then, then again that,

As the mayor was saying, as Michael said, bring staff to the facility out there.

That presence, I think, should be helpful.

Being able to find a way to take folks who gather outside or in the parking lot there and find another place for them to gather should be helpful.

I don't doubt that problems will continue.

You know, even when this is done, but this seems like a step in the right direction to help provide some solutions, something better than what's happening now.

I think given the vulnerabilities that many of the residents face there, the type of challenges that happen with bringing guests in won't go away.

I think the one thing that I struggle with is that the residents that live there now deserve to have an upgrade.

They deserve to have, because I mean it's an old building.

and I don't know when's the last time there was any type of remodel or care for that building was done, but the people that live there deserve to have this remodel and upgrade, right?

and so that's what I struggle with.

I struggle with we have these issues with bad actors coming in and causing problems and then you have people who are living there who this is their home and we have the opportunity to give them a place that they could be actually proud of.

I mean, you know, when we were talking about the design and, you know, what you were going to do with the remodel, that's something people can be proud of.

And so, it's that, you know, what do we do?

I don't want to, I don't want for people who are living there to miss out on having, you know, a new unit, right, a new upgrade on that.

I was fine with what I heard and saw from you and my conversation with Gil as well.

You heard me and you heard what I wanted, what I asked for, and I think Gil's going to make sure that it happens.

Oh, yeah.

I think to address Councilwoman Robinson for her concerns, I think the installation of the camera inside the building after hours and make sure that next day those people like violated will be put accountable, like checking that frequently.

Then they will put in mind, oh,

Even after ours, we are washed by others.

I will say, you know, if you look at the investments that HRHA kind of, you know, Michael's generation of HRHA have done that are theirs, like Commerce Village,

And then the changes they've made into the older units that have been there for over time.

And they have done serious upgrades, significant upgrades to many of those units there.

with limited resources but upgrading all those units.

I think you know the work that Michael does that he's in charge of is you know he's overseeing a housing authority getting money from housing urban development and they don't hand out big checks.

Well they are big checks actually but they have to go a long way and so they aren't big enough to go the distance they need to go but Michael puts those to good use and

Sure, I just wanted to appreciate the creative repurposing of the beloved Glens Fair price and adapting it for affordable housing and for the most vulnerable people.

I also might observe or suppose that having a relatively small

Number of units, 16 units within on one floor might have a certain calming effect or safety effect rather than the high rises of lime weaver that have more of the problems.

Just a possibility that it might be a more welcoming environment.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Michael.

Well moved that we approve or adopt the resolution authorizing and approving the purchase and renovation of 227 North Main Street into a mixed-use housing and commercial development by HRHA.

Any more discussion?

Vice Mayor Fleming?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Some of you may recall in 2021, the Shenandoah Valley Organic farmer focus received a half million dollar Commonwealth Opportunity Fund grant award.

The performance agreement stated that the Commonwealth of Virginia would pay upon completion of the $60 million capital investment in the new production facility on Acorn Drive and the creation of at least 110 new jobs within three years.

SVO has blown far past that benchmark by hiring over 950 new jobs since 2021.

Current staff headcount is north of 1,450 employees combined at their two Harrisonburg facilities.

Last week, the Commonwealth of Virginia paid $500,000 to the city to meet this agreement and council has requested to pass this grant award through to SVO within 30 days.

Following your deliberation and action,

The Harrisonburg Economic Development Authority is scheduled to meet December 3rd to also vote to pass this funding through to SVO.

Can you one more time say how many jobs that they were required?

They, to meet the Commonwealth of Virginia's agreement for the opportunity fund grant, they were committing $60 million capital investment in the new facility on Acorn Drive and to have hired within three years 110 new jobs and they have hired over 950.

Yeah, that's incredible.

Councilmember Dent.

Aye.

Councilmember Robinson.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Fleming.

Aye.

Aye.

We'll now go into other matters.

Comments from the public limited to five minutes or matters not on the regular agenda.

If anyone wishes to speak, please state your name and address.

and Mayor Parayotisianacuros, city resident.

Once again, I came here early and I found something that made me change my planned testimony.

So instead of what I was going to say, I have something for you all.

And I'll get everybody else later.

So I found this next to the bicycle racks today.

And that made me wonder, did people know I was going to be testifying today?

Did somebody leave these on purpose?

So I'll tell you what this is in my mind related to.

The Harrisonburg Martin Luther King Jr.

Way Coalition participated in Skeleton Festival recently and we had an exercise there that you all can now participate in thanks to, was it a generous person or was it just chance?

that brought this to us.

The activity that we did with the kids was they got to build brush piles.

So you all can either build your own brush pile right here and I have pieces for the Chiefs as well.

They are not a fire hazard if you pay attention in the right way.

Or you can take them home and start your own brush pile.

I believe this is a wild indigo, a rare native in this part.

And after seeing the brush pile part, the kids moved to another station where they got to see what brush piles are good for.

And as they read about the brush piles, as you see in your handout,

they saw a little fox emerge on the phone that was there.

And I didn't get to, yes, and they were uniformly delighted, kids and parents.

And then the next station in the activity was to come up with a name for the fox.

And we have these hundreds of delightful little names that the kids came up with for the fox.

Now I was not there to see the little moments that would have been associated with the names because we were fortunate again as in previous years.

to have a retired elementary school teacher supervising the activity at that point.

But I did get to direct kids to our obscure corner of the event away from all the other tables and got to see the brush pile and the going to the phone and one that really stuck with me.

was a little girl.

The kids were generally preschoolers, it looked like to me, and the little girl was dressed in some kind of a pink costume.

And as the fox emerged and nuzzled the camera, she said, a cat!

So delightful.

And with that, I will stop my presentation and let you all to think on that and see what you'll do with your potential brush pile.

I'll leave some seeds up here as well.

We also shared seeds, so I'll leave seeds up here for the next people to speak and for any of you to take to see what this mystery plant is.

We'll be at Winter Wonderfest as well and we'll be hoping that the city gets moving in a good direction that taps the hope and the joy that we saw in those kids and forestalls the other things that we saw earlier today.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none in person, Pam do we have any callers?

Thank you.

Vice Mayor and I were at the National League of Cities in Salt Lake, Utah and we were able to learn more from other cities and we shared some experiences from other, from our city and they were actually

and greeted and welcomed by other cities.

And yeah, we brought some ideas from there.

It was a great place, great event to learn more and hopefully that we can, we saw some vendors as well and great ideas and we hope that we can implement these ideas in our city hopefully.

Thank you.

Okay, well I've just been on a major adventure going to COP30 in Belem, Brazil, which was a phenomenal experience.

Tens of thousands of people literally from all over the world getting together to negotiate

the annual UN climate discussions.

One of our groups said that these are the most complex negotiations in human history.

And part of the frustration is what we know we need to do is simple, stop burning fossil fuels.

And it's been 30 years of talking about how to make that transition and discussions and disputes about how to carry it forward.

That's at the high level.

I was, Pam, do you have my video?

Hello, I'm Laura Dent, Harrisonburg, Virginia City Council member.

Since the United States doesn't have a delegation this year, I'm officially sponsored by the Elected Officials to Protect America and the Ukraine delegation.

I'm also unofficially representing the National League of Cities where the message we are bringing is we are with you.

America is all in for climate action throughout the 19,000 cities, towns, and villages who care about climate.

And please remember, parliaments make cops count.

All right, so that was kind of my closing statement.

And the thing about parliaments, I discovered that I'm counted as a parliamentarian, as a city council member.

And you heard that there's a long list of organizations I was involved with, elected officials to protect America or EOPA, Ukraine, NLC.

I didn't even mention ICLEI, the local governments for sustainability and LGMA that I

gravitated to a lot.

I did some great speaking engagements with the U.S.

Brazil dialogue on climate action in uncertain political times.

We had some very frank discussions about what our respective countries have been through.

There were some representatives from the U.S.

Congress there or an organization called SEEK,

SEEC, Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, that's a Congress group that said there were going to be 17 US representatives there, but they had to stay in the US to vote to reopen the government.

So the organizers were there and I remember him saying, we're having to fight for democracy and climate at the same time.

So that's part of the burden that we have.

I also went to a great Mexican

State Representative's Dinner and told them,

Thank you very much for including us from the United States.

So all in all, it felt like citizen diplomacy at the highest level.

And as you heard, the main message I was bringing was we in America care about climate, even if the US government isn't here.

And in fact, in a way, one of the best pieces of news I heard was that given that the US didn't participate in the negotiations this year,

The climate commitments that the U.S.

made last year are still in force, so they would be much more friendly to climate.

So I found overall that people really appreciated hearing that message that America is with you in spirit.

And I got called a champ.

I loved it.

And I felt really like I was championing and representing that America does care about climate.

So it felt like a really important message to bring.

Now I was going to give a presentation on the town hall cops that we considered in EPSAC but decided to do our own homegrown version instead.

But just when I was going to make the presentation, a fire broke out and people were running to evacuate in this huge bubble dome.

It turned out to be contained fairly rapidly, but it was a scary moment in that.

And the place where we were was Belém, Brazil, which is near the mouth of the Amazon.

It was hot, hot, hot and raining a lot now.

One of my favorite conversations was telling someone about Harrisonburg and how diverse and welcoming we are.

And he said, Harrisonburg sounds like it has the secret sauce.

So I was representing Harrisonburg as well.

So now I also had a fun adventure in the middle.

I went for a kind of weekend in the middle of the two weeks conference to Iguazu Falls, this spectacular waterfall in the southwest of Brazil on the Argentine border.

So I managed to get some sightseeing in as well.

And unfortunately, somewhere along the way, I caught COVID.

So coming back, I had this

Thank you Yes Last week I went through the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition's annual bike summit and presented on the Community Connectors program along with Jacob, who did an excellent job I also went to

from the Chesapeake Bay Trust Conference and presented in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on partnering with organizations whose mission seems to be the opposite of yours, but whose target population is the same as yours, and that usually is disinvested communities, and it was great.

Well, I joined Councilman Alsadun in Salt Lake City for the National League of Cities Conference.

So, you know, it's four days jam-packed with an overwhelming amount of information to absorb.

I'll take some of my notes from that and I think share it with counsel.

I don't want to go through the entirety of it.

There's a lot of housing, an interesting piece.

Some of the focus was around civility.

There's a lot of workshops, a lot of conversations around that.

One of the things that Councilman Alsadun and I sat in was called the Dignity Index.

And it's a program that Tim Shriver from the Special Olympics has been pushing.

And so there's quite a presentation around that.

The person who's behind that is, her name is Donna Hicks.

And I'm not sure if any of you remember, but she is connected with EMU.

She was EMU several years ago presenting this idea, this concept.

And EMU was really interested in pursuing it, and then COVID broke out.

Now this is a fairly large national program.

So it was something to look at for us, I think.

A lot of legislative work happens there.

Councilman Alsadun voted on the NLC legislative agenda there, so we'll pass that out.

to council members, so you can take a look at that.

I'm now appointed, or actually appointed, elected as a board member for NLC.

So I'm now an NLC board member.

I will be Virginia's lone representative on the NLC board.

So I'll have that, yeah, so, you know, there's a robust legislative agenda on all sorts of topics from housing,

financial empowerment NLC is stepping into and has been stepping into the financial empowerment arena and we're a participant and we have been working with them on that so give me a chance to help shape and bring some of Harrisonburg's needs to that national organization so bring our voice

to that board, help shape some of the ideas there.

And as well, many foundations are connected there, so it's a way to attach ourselves to these foundations to get resources back to us.

So that'll be part of the job there for the next period of time that I'm on the board there.

So that was a great session.

One thing I do want to bring up just as a note

for us carrying over from the last meeting.

So the last meeting we talked about having a letter come from council.

And I know we've all been busy so, you know, a draft is available and if maybe over the next, before the next meeting council members can take a look at that, offer their input to City Manager Banks and then maybe at the next council meeting be prepared to have that as a discussion item to

to move forward for us.

I know it was pretty tough for these last two weeks with folks traveling out and about.

For me, I had a Parks and Rec meeting, got an update on Kids' Council and the other projects there.

I also did my Thanksgiving blessing boxes, something that I've done every year.

Thank you.

With a good friend of mine, Ashley Gordon.

Becker.

We served, we gave 120 boxes this year, which

It was, yeah, it shows the need of the city and the community.

It's by far more than we've ever done.

We usually keep it around 60 to 80, but the need is far.

There's a lot of people hurting in our community right now.

Also, got to cut the ribbon on our fire station today.

So, station number five.

is ready to go.

So that was a great moment for us as well.

And then I get to Pardon to Turkey for Kevin Gibson for VA Momentum Thursday morning.

Thanksgiving morning and then the Chief and I will go out and deliver some turkey to our firefighters here.

That comes from me and Ashley as well.

So we'll do that Thursday morning.

Then I'm going to Richmond.

I'm going to brag on my nephew a little bit.

My nephew is a senior, plays football for Hermitage High School.

They had their playoff game in Roanoke last weekend.

You know, I'm very supportive, Aunt Titi, and I was like, they ain't going to win.

This is going to be it, so let's all go and support Dylan.

because they were playing a major team, Patrick Henry, undefeated, and they won.

So now I got to go to another playoff game.

which will be Friday.

But I'm very excited for him because we didn't think that they would win that game.

And then Monday, December 1, I will start with the transition team with Governor-elect Spanberger.

So things may change for me.

after December 1, so get ready.

Because if I can't fulfill my upcoming events, then I'm going to lean on you all to help out with that.

But I'll know more on Monday.

It is in person in Richmond, so I'll let you know what's going on.

And you and I served on a panel together at EMU.

along with Deputy City Manager Amy Snyder, well received at Easter Mennonite, so thank you two for doing that for me.

And I got another one coming up too, so I'll let you know.

It'll be with my class up at Sims, so I'll keep going.

But thank you for doing it.

I was contacted by a local business a long time, very good business here in the city.

to see if council would be willing to consider an exemption to the city's machinery and tool tax for a particular piece of equipment owned by and used by that business.

What it is is basically a baler, very similar probably to what Tom Hartman described to us a few millions ago.

But this baler has been certified by the Department of Environmental Quality of Virginia.

that is integral to the recycling process and used primarily for the purpose of abating

or preventing pollution in the atmosphere or the waters of the commonwealth.

Basically what it does is it processes recyclables and then returns those to manufacturers for further use.

And they did give me some numbers about the amount of recyclables they take out of the waste stream.

I think this is from last year, cardboard, 13,728 tons.

plastic, 766 tons.

I'm sorry, that was paper.

I got 1,700 tons of plastic, over 200 tons of steel, and 200 tons of aluminum.

And about 80% of that, again, goes back to manufacturers who were used mainly as the original product.

So under state law,

If they receive such a certification by DEQ and if the local governing body has passed an ordinance, they can get an exemption for that piece of property from our machinery and tools tax.

You certainly don't have to decide this issue tonight, it's kind of complicated, but because of the timing at the end of the year,

With council's permission if there's a consensus I'll continue to work with our director of finance and our Commission of the revenue on a proposed ordinance amendment and bring back that information to council at the next meeting for your consideration So that if council is does think it's a good idea.

They could have that exemption for next year.

It's a

It's a very limited number of businesses who would qualify.

You have this sort of equipment, in fact, probably only one, and it's a fairly de minimis amount of tax and we'll give you those details.

9A is the Rockingham Harrisonburg Alcohol Safety Action Program, ASAP Policy Board.

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Alright, 9B is to Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority HRHA.

I will be honored to recommend the approval of Gil Coleman, his reappointment to his position at Harrisburg Housing Authority and then also to appoint Sam Nichols to the HRHA board.

Any discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Mayor Reed, can I interject on that one?

So there are two unexpired terms and one full term on HRHA to be filled.

Does it matter which one?

So there are terms that expire at different dates, but people have moved off the board.

The people who moved off, one of them, I guess, has a term that would expire in 2027 based on their appointment.

So we're putting SAM in the 2028.

Great.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we're good.

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Congratulations, Gil.

Then we have HEC, Harrisonburg Electric Commission.

Any discussion?

No, ma'am.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right.

Madam Mayor and council members, the closed session needs to be removed from the agenda this evening.

Do we need to do anything about this?

All right.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy your holiday.

All right, thank you.