Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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May 13th, 2026. Our first order of business is the approval of meet meeting minutes from April 22nd. Everybody had a chance to look them over. Any changes, revisions, any motions? Motion to approve. All right, we have a second. Second.

All right. All in favor say I. I. All right. Every Yeah. Okay. Um, now we'll be hearing petitions open to public comment. There is nobody here um to comment, so we'll just move on. Um, and I would say uh my my business does has done some work with Liberty, so that's not going to impact the way I vote today. Um, our next order of business is petition of Liberty University to amend the future land use map from community commercial to institution and to reszone approximately 2 and 7500s of an acre located at 1410 University Boulevard from B3C Community Business District with conditions to institutional district to allow dormatory housing.

Thank you, chair, vice chair, members of planning commission. Uh, as stated, the purpose of this petition is to allow the reuse of a hotel structure as dormatory housing for Liberty University. Um, our future land use map recommends community commercial uses for the property. Uh, these contain retail, personal service, entertainment, and restaurant uses uh that draw customers from uh, you know, all over the city or even the region. The petition proposes to amend the future land use map to uh, from community, commercial to institution. Our institutions include religious, educational, and other nonprofit entities in the city such as churches, schools, universities, service clubs, that sort of thing. Uh the subject property was annexed into the city in 1958. The existing B3C community business district conditional was established in 1997. The subject property consists of approximately 2.75 acres and contains a three-story hotel structure with 102 guest rooms. The building was constructed in 2002. The property is surrounded by the Liberty University campus, which of course is an institutional use. Uh there are some commercial uses nearby along Candler's Mountain Road, as well as US 460 running adjacent to the property. If approved, the existing hotel structure would be used as dormatory housing and incorporated as part of the campus. The existing 102 rooms would be used uh for an anticipated maximum capacity of 204 beds. There is existing parking on the site and no new buildings, auditions or parking areas are proposed as part of this petition. Uh in summary, universities and dorms are permitted by right in the IN2 institutional district 2. Uh the proposed future land use map amendment to institution aligns with the requested reszoning and the use of the existing hotel structure should have limited impact on the surrounding area. The city's technical review committee reviewed this petition on April 21st.

Comments were minor in nature. Uh the planning division recommends approval of the petition. Thank you. Who's here to speak on behalf of the petition? If you could please state your name and sign in. tell us a little bit more about it. Thanks.

Yes, my name is Dan Deer. I'm with Liberty University representing this uh proposed resoning. And uh as usual, Rachel did a great job of explaining it. Um I will say that, you know, we were here a couple weeks ago talking about housing demands for onampus versus uh the the off-campus living. We are seeing a a trend where upper classmen are wanting to stay on campus. We've noticed that the the the rents for the the the off-site have kind of gone up. So there isn't that much of a disparity between our onampus rates and the off-campus rates. And you know, we've got a very secure campus and they've got food, all the they all the amenities they could really want. And um because of that and um because I don't know if you've noticed, but the North Point project has been closed. So that one's facing some kind of major renovations or possibly selling. We're not really sure where that one wants to land, but that was about 64 rooms that we lost in our inventory. So this acquisition will actually help us kind of replace those rooms and give us another very close to campus option for housing. So um we're already seeing very positive feedback from the students. We have put it out as an option for them to choose uh just to kind of make sure that there was going to be demand and interest for this location because it is it's not really around the rest of the the dormitories. They're more in the middle and in the south end of campus. But um we're seeing very positive student feedback. So we're very excited about the project. So happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. And so having having no no public here, I think we'll close the the public hearing and um going ahead any questions while you're still here. Yes. So I come from for the city and everything else. So, do you guys know what that impact, that economic impact for calling it 2004 students? Do you know what that could potentially be? Because we're taking away about 100 to 120K a year in tax revenue from the city. Do you know what that potentially impact by the students could be for the city?

Not prepared to answer that question. I know that we've done a financial analysis and the break even point is in the 10 to 12 year uh period. I don't know what the exact return on investment but it's a little longer than we had hoped but um you know the simple fact is if you're following construction at all when we were building dorms in 2020 we were spending about 68 to 70,000 per bid. you know, the Commons towers, things like that. Commons for we just got done with, we plateaued over 110,000 per bed, and

it's just the the stark reality of the cost of everything has gone up, including construction labor. So, um this was much more cost-effective uh for the students and we do have the demand. So, so the second question, the the one that you guys have on Oddfellows that is vacant right now, is there any plans to potentially renovate that, sell that, bring in a a hotel year that will potentially offset this impact for tax revenues for the city? I think that's what we're kind of evaluating right now. Okay.

Um, it doesn't really work in its current state for a dorm. And the model was kind of, you know, it was it was a hard model because we were trying to hold it for families and married students and, you know, there was becoming more exceptions to the rule than what the rule would allow. So, you know, that one that's being evaluated right now. So, one of the potential uses is to sell it. Um, you know, it could be sold to another developer for a redevelopment, right? I don't know. Liberty would want to be in the hotel business. So, we would probably, you know, sell that and let somebody else take it over. But, you know, it's definitely not going to be something we're going to sit on for a long time

because I was thinking I was comparing with the Fairfield up on the hill from there. So, right, that was really primary the question that I had. So, yeah, that one's a little unique because it's so close to campus and it's great for visitors and things, but you know, this one's a little farther away and I don't think we'd be wanting to look at a hotel, right, operation. Okay.

Thank you. My only question is with parking. It right now it's averaging about one vehicle per room and I would anticipate the need being much higher than that and I know that it says you've got your campus parking but we all know what college parking is like. though. Um, just what's your thoughts on on that anticipated need and where all those cars are going to end up?

Yeah, we we don't really have a a policy for the dorms where if you live in the dorm, you get a parking spot. Your parking is basically done by your class andor, you know, whether you're a commuter student. So, residential students have certain lots that they can park in. Um, the nice thing about this is we do have that lower lot, you know, the the the 1400 on the the map. So, it's not just the extended stay, but we also own that lower parking lot and we've got that other parking lot which don't really get used much on a day-to-day basis. They're really more for football games and hockey r hockey nights and things like that. So, there's also a 1500 space parking deck right across the street. So, um, while we do see some additional cars, you know, we believe we've got enough parking by zone. So, just because somebody lives in this dorm doesn't mean they're going to get to park at the dorm. They could be a freshman student and they could be parking in East Satellite lot, but we've got the bus loop and the bus loop stops at the east satellite and it'll take them, we are going to add a stop to this building, so they will be dropped off right at this building. So, you know, there's no expectation that it's going to be one for one parking. It's all going to be based on the class and where where the student is.

Considering the the lot and pedestrian safety. Uh, is there I see one thing looks like a crosswalk. Is there one that's anticipated to go over to the parking deck? Is there any thought of like pedestrian kids walking around across the street or is that not something that's kind of on the radar?

Right now, we're evaluating putting some fencing along the front entrance to try to stop people from wanting to cross at the parking deck. When we did the the the project on University Boulevard, one of the things that we got approved was that specific pedestrian crosswalk. And you know, we've got the the the city approved lighted sign package on that crosswalk. We're actually working with um Lee Nuland and the engineering group. We're going to enhance that so it's got more light on it so it's a more lit uh crosswalk. But the plan is to try to corral them to that existing because we feel like the closer we encourage a pedestrian crosswalk to the intersection, it's just, you know, because that intersection does back up at certain points of the day. So, you know, like we did a fence along the big parking lot to stop people from wanting to cross at the intersection. We're going to look at trying to steer traffic to make sure that kids are using the actual crosswalk. As far as the traffic count is, I saw in the report that there was no uh study done for the traffic, maybe none required, I think, but um is there any does the traffic study I presume there's a traffic study done for the parking deck, does that would that bound what or does that cover where we at where we're at right now and where we'll be with this particular project? I mean, um, do I mean, do you foresee like looking at it the current property right now, I don't see a need for an additional light at the intersection, but I mean, is there are we covered by what with the parking deck and and whatever that uh additional capacity or load presents? When we looked at that corridor, the parking deck was the the big driver in that area because 1500 spaces versus I think there's, you know, maybeund and something on those surface lots and um the traffic patterns with it being a dorm, you know, they typically don't follow the employee patterns where people are coming into work in the

morning and leaving in the afternoon. So, um, we don't anticipate this increasing any of the traffic around there because, um, brutal fact is, you know, the students when they're going to deos, there's no parking at Demos. So, they're not going to be jumping in their car and driving to Demos. You know, once they get their car there, it's probably going to sit more than it actually drives. Okay. All right. Just out of curiosity, do I mean, knowing talking about the construction prices, do you see this as a possible trend more for Liberty? like looking at for example the Fairfield or other hotels and saying we we could probably buy this and make it into off-campus dormitories or on campus.

I think so. I mean I honestly I think that um you know obviously the the amount of inventory that we could target is very limited. I think that we are keeping or we're wanting to keep you know the the campus housing close to campus. So there's really only two other hotels that would even be close to campus. And

you know, we've had talks with them in the past, but you know, there was nothing that was any concrete. You know, hey, we really want to sell or we really want to buy. But you know, in this case, when we did the analysis, you know, for both timing and cost of construction, it just made sense that, you know, this was something because, you know, we still are having to put, you know, money into it to get it converted. But this was kind of a unique situation too because the North Point apartments were fully kitchened and things like that and extended stays got the kitchen. So if we do have some of those displaced married couples, they could go into the extended stay and at least have the ability to make food and, you know, not have to rely on meal plans and things like that. So um yeah, it's something we're definitely looking at, but I don't think we're going to be looking at it, you know, very far away from main campus. Right. So Right. Thanks, How long has it been vacant?

I'm sorry. How long has it been vacant? Uh, we closed on it April 21st. Well, I think with the long range plans was it having about 30,000 on campus within a few years? I mean, that there's such a need for uh dotory housing on at Liberty. I mean, that's doubling the size of Liberty, which is a great thing. Fingers crossed. Where are you at total on campus now?

Uh we're just under 17,000 and that's that's not on campus. That's that's residential. So we do have a lot of commuter students. So we're about 60% actually living on campus. Right now the plan is to keep the build building as is just renovate the building and not not add on to it or expand or is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we do have some code updates that we have to apply inside. Um, we've got some damaged stuff we have to replace and we are doing a small minor renovation to the front lobby just because we don't need the typical checkin and all that. So, we're going to create that or we're going to reconfigure that into more like a student lounge, but the elevators are staying the rooms are pretty much staying as is. Okay.

Motion to approve. Motion to approve. A second. Anybody? Second. Okay. Any other comments before we vote? All right. All in favor of moving this forward say I. I. All opposed. Great. Unanimous. All right. Thank you. Much luck. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. We have no other business to attend to. Right. Uh you will have a meeting on May 27th. Um, that's when we hope to bring that ordinance update to you. Okay. Anything else coming up?

Uh, if you could send, uh, Commissioner Cox did send his vacation schedule for the next month or two. Um, we are trying to schedule a comp plan uh, work session with you guys. So, if you have any known dates that are blackout for you, if you're out of town or whatever, that would be helpful to know as we try to find a date. He's trying to make us look bad, isn't he? What's happening? Oh, yeah. Gold star for Commissioner Cox. He's ahead of the curve. All right. Great. Any motion to adjourn? Great. A second. No one's opposed. So, let's go. Thank you.