Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I guess that's a yes. Yes, it is. Thank you all for attending uh the Abington and Town Council meeting Monday, March 2nd, 2026. Um, please note there will be opportunity during this meeting for citizens to address the town council when the mayor, I, Dwayne Anderson, declare public comment open. We request that anyone addressing the council sign up, approach the podium when called, and state your first and last name. Kim, if you'll please call roll. Miss Quetch, here. Vice Mayor Austin, present. And Mary Anderson, here.

Let the record reflect Mr. Webb and Miss Pion are absent. If everyone will please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I don't think the pastor's here today, is he? Huh? Mr. blessing. Kevin's going to do, of course. Um, if everyone will please rise, Mr. Kevin Blankenship will now lead us in prayer. Sorry, last minute.

Yeah, no problem. Let's bow our heads. Precious Father, we come to you this evening. We first want to acknowledge your blessings and we want to thank you for those. Thank you for uh giving us the wisdom uh to run this city. We ask God that you would continue to guide this ship. We ask that you would bless this meeting with your presence that your will be done on the benefit for the benefit of the town. Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you Kevin. Thank you Kevin.

Now um I need approval of the agenda. If I could get a motion to approve the agenda tonight. The two of you are going to be busy so yeah give you up how you're going to do it. The motion's made by um Miss Donna and I'll second. Second by Vice Mayor Wayne Austin. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Miss Quetch. I. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mary Anderson. I. Now we need approval of the minutes from February the 17th, 2026. If someone would like to make a motion on that. I move that they be approved as presented. Do I have a second?

Second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Miss Qu. I. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mayor Anderson. I.

We have no one signed up tonight for public comments. We have no proclamations tonight. It's going to lead us to opening up the public hearing. And the first thing on the agenda for public hearing tonight is a public hearing for the proposed special use permit for the home occupancy category C detached art studio and a high density residential district R3 tax map number 014-12-31 and the address on that will be 338 Land Street Abington Virginia and we'll ask Mr. Gab Mr. Gabe to come up and present that please kind of so Addie Hursten applicant/ owner has requested approval of a special use permit to allow a home occupation category C in a highdensity residential district R3 uh located at 338 Land and 340 Land Street. Uh the property again is within the highdensity residential district. Uh background the building was constructed circuit 1960 and previously occupied by Grace Lutheran Church. Currently the applicant owns the building's address 338 and 340 Land Street and intends to convert the church to a single family dwelling and the detached accessory building for a home occupation category C which would be an art studio. Uh staff findings again the applicant proposes a home occupation category C within a highdensity residential district R3 to operate a professional art studio from the detached accessory building on the premises and occasionally host studio art classes to a few clients at a time. Uh for SUPs we

have to look at multiple findings and see if they meet our ordinance. So one demonstrate that the proposed use when complemented with additional res measures if any will be in harmony with the purposes of the specific district in which it will be placed. The R3 district intends for higher density residential uses and compatible public and semi-public land uses which allowed a church with regular Sunday services to operate from this location since circa 2010. The applicant has applied for uh applicable building permits to convert the church into a residence and the accessory structure into an art studio. Occasional classes will be hosted but on a less frequent schedule than when the church was in operation. Two, demonstrate that there will be no undue adverse impact on the surrounding neighborhood in terms of public health, safety, or general welfare and show measures to be taken to achieve such goals. Uh screening. The proposed home occupation is screened by an an existing dense tree line along the eastern, southern, and western property line. The existing tree line should remain intact to preserve natural screening. Parking. The minimum off- streetet parking requirements for home occupation category C are not specifically stated within the zoning ordinance according to section 8-3-10. Interpretation of specific requirements for table 8.3.9. Uses not specifically listed shall be the same as for a listed use of similar characteristics. An art studio is considered a professional studio which requires a minimum of one off- streetet parking space for each 500 ft of floor area. The applicant intends to use the accessory structure which is approximately 576 ft uh for the home occupation. Standard single family dwelling units require a minimum of two parking spaces. A minimum of three parking spaces required for the whole kind of use that we're looking at here. uh signage. Only one sign is allowed per home occupation. There is an existing brick monument sign structure on the property near the entrance to the parking lot approximately 2 ft by 2 ft.

This structure may be retained and utilized for future signage or removed and replaced with a new monument sign not to exceed 4 square ft. The new monument sign may not be internally illuminated or the applicant may choose to utilize one wall sign affixed to the rear accessory structure to be the art studio where the classes are held. This sign shall not exceed four square feet nor be internally illuminated. All signs require a sign permit application to be submitted to the community development department with dimensions, materials, and renderings provided. The sign permit must be issued before any installation of signage can occur. Uh, one portable sign is allowed without a permit provided the portable sign does not exceed four square feet uh four, I'm sorry, four feet in height and is not placed in a location that obstructs sighteline distance and is moved inside when an event is not being held. Three, show that the proposal meets the applicable specific and general standards required by this article. Uh the plan commission can discuss this which they did. Uh they added two conditions is one is adequate park can be identified with the appropriate striping staff who went on site. There is adequate room for parking. They just have to identify it by striping the lots and then the meets and bounds of the property be identified. Other than that, the uh SUP was approved as presented with those conditions with unanimously just with one absent and uh and one absentee. So, if you have any questions for me, I'm more than happy to answer them. If not, the applicant's here to provide answers. I can't. So,

no questions. No questions. And hey, welcome to the neighborhood. I actually live on Highland Street and I I know the property that's in question here. So, I know that there's adequate space there for parking. I know it's just not marked off, but I think that's that's going to be a good thing for my neighborhood and the the residents down below on Land Street as well, too. Yes, ma'am. There is adequate parking. I understand that the striping is required, but I think it would be more pleasing without it just personally. I understand the planning commission asked that it be striped.

Um, is there anyone else that would like to speak on this? Need I'd like to open the public hearing if anyone would like to make any comments on this. If there's none, we will close the public hearing for that and we'll move on to the next that we have on the docket for public hearing is on the proposed special use permit for cottage using development and high density residents district R-3 tap tax map ID 011-1-13 Taylor Street Abington, Virginia. And I'm g ask Gabe to come up and present that please again.

Hello again. Uh so yes, the request is from Appalachin Highlands Housing Partners which is the applicant and owner has requested approval of a special use permit to allow a residential college housing development in the highdensity residential district R3. Uh there is no specific address to these type because there's no really building address on the site yet. So it's just Taylor Street with the parcel number there. Uh background. Currently, a vacant accessory structure occupies the property. There is there is an existing natural vegetative buffer surrounding the property and the property has steep topography throughout. Access to the site will continue to be Taylor Street. However, there is an unopened rideway adjacent to the northeastern property line. The unopened rideway shown in the picture to the left uh which is in your uh packets uh would uh would connect Taylor Street to Henry Street. Town of Evan currently has no plans to develop this right away and the rightway is currently utilized as a driveway for one of the parcels nearby there. Again, as I said previously, um when we look at SUPs, they have to meet certain findings. Uh the applicant proposes a residential cottage housing development with a within a highdensity residential district R3. According to land according to land use chapter 44, a cottage housing development located uh may be allowed in the R3 district with the approval of a special use permit. The SUP findings are the following. One, demonstrate that the proposed use when complemented with additional measures, if any, will be in harmony with the purposes of the specific district in which it will be placed. The R3 highdensity residential district is intended to allow higher residential density with compatible public and semi-public land uses when served by public water and sewer. Cottage housing developments are allowed by SUP in the highdensity residential district with careful consideration to maintain open space and preserve a high quality residential environment. All adjacent parcels are the same zone and use permissions as subject to parcel. The

property has no un uh has not undergone a zone map amendment and has always been R3. Two, demonstrate that there will be no undue adverse impact on the surrounding neighborhood in terms of public health, safety, or general welfare and show measures to be taken to achieve such goals. Overall, all cottages will be arranged in a manner to allow common open space, private open space, parking and landscaping throughout according to the applicable specific general standards found in section 7-2-13, which is specific uses for the cottage housing developments, and section 8, which is just our community design standards that we apply townwide. uh of the town of Abington. Uh zoning ordinance density. According to table 7.2.13, cottage housing developments require 4 to eight cottages per acre on a 2acre minimum lot size. A total of 15 units will be placed on the 2.33 acre property. The maximum density of one cottage per 4,000 ft is met. Typical dimensional standards for main structures in this district include subbacks that are 10 ft from property line in front and sideyard and 15 ft from property line in the rear yard. The maximum height would shall be 25 ft from grade and unless otherwise approved as part of the SUP. All colleges maintain a separation of 12 feet minimum, have a covered main entry porch at least 5 feet in any direction, and measuring 60 square feet, a maximum ground floor area of 1,000 square ft, and additional covered private back porch. Facade architectural plan show uh shall be submitted that demonstrate a variation in building design, including building articulation, material, structure, textures, and other features. Typical materials are outlined in section 7-2-13F, but departure from the standards may be reviewed through an alternative design review process, which that happened at the plan commission meeting. They were all agreeable to that. Um, street facing facade should include

changes in side materials and color. Uh, building modulation with depth of at least 1 ft and/or windows which uh include bay windows. More than one main entry door will be visible from the street and no cage appears to turn their backs. Common open space. Uh over 50% of all cottages must have a common open space which shall not include slopes of greater than 15% streets or parking area. Nine of 15 cottages but a common open space including a dog park, pollinator garden and picnic area. Private open space. Individual cottages shall have a minimum of 200 square feet of private space separated by a privacy fence no taller than 36 in in height and no less than 8 ft in any direction. All fences shall be designed according to section 8-2-9. Landscaping. A landscape plan shall be included with a site plan submission. The plan shall include and the standards outlined in section 8-2-3 and 8-2-4. There is an existing dense tree line surrounding the property line that may be retained and credited toward landscaping requirements if they are healthy and conformed to the minimum size and height standards as outlined in 8-2-7 and protection standards outlined in 8-2-8. Screening is required for mechanical units and groundbased utility equipment. Rolloff waste receptacles will be utilized instead of dumpsters and no screening shall be required. Parking and loading. Parking lot should be designed according to section 8-3-7. Each space shall be a minimum of 9 ft wide by 8 feet in length, striped or striped or marked and include accessible off- streetet spaces required in accordance with the Virginia Uniform statewide building code. Parking lots for cottages are typically in the rear or the side. However, this parking lot will be clustered in the middle of the site due to topography considerations. Low impact storm water development techniques are encouraged for parking areas and walkways. A minimum of two spaces required per dwelling unit. A

total of 30 spaces required and proposed. A minimum of 10% of the overall parking lot is required to have interior landscaping parking islands with one tree for every five spaces and other shrubs, lawn or trees throughout. The parking lot should have reduced visibility from the street and should be landscaped and screened accordingly. Lighting. A lighting plan shall be included with the site plan submission. The plan shall include the type of lighting fixtures, location of struct fixtures, color temperature, height of poles, and illuminance of light as outlined in section 8-1-3. Lighting shall be pointed downward and away from adjacent properties. Mechanical electrical equipment associated with the lighting should be screened. Signs. The CH housing development is allowed one free one freestanding monument sign that is not internally illuminated. This monument sign may be no taller than 6 feet with a total area of 16 square feet or less. Adequate landscaping shall surround the perimeter of the sign. All proposed signage uh to be installed must submit for a sign permit as we always require. Storm water management and erosion control and storm water management plan ESM uh shall be submitted according to section 8-5 of the town of Abinant land use ordinance. And three for the findings show that the proposal meets the applicable specific and general standards required by this article. A site plan, grading plan, utility plan, and street walking path and parking plan have been submitted for review and the document reviewed in determining if the requirements for cottage housing and community design service have been met or will be met. So overall, whatever they haven't submitted yet, so the storm water plan, which they're currently working on, we will ensure as staff that that meets all state and local requirements. Um the motion did pass as presented with uh one absent and and one abstained. I did receive and this was after the meeting. Um I did receive an email from one of

the adjacent property owners that was in opposition to this project. They have asked me to read the full entire email uh to be on the record. So this is from Marie A. McCullum uh English PhD 322. John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Loansside, New Jersey. Uh, and it was addressed to town staff. Subject is urgent opposition to proposed housing development, says, "Dear Gabri, we are writing to strongly oppose the proposed housing development in our neighborhood and urge you to reconsider and not approve this project. Tax map ID number 011-1-13 to be determined Taylor Street, Avenue, Virginia 24210. Our homes may be older, but they are well cared for and full of families who have built their lives here. While there may be some vacant or declining properties, the area as a whole is is thriving and does not need the reinvention this development proposes. It is a stable lived in community where neighbors know one another, children play safely, and families have invested years of hard work into maintaining their homes. Residents choose this area because of its character, man manageable density, safe streets, and sense of community. This development threatens to fundamentally change everything so many of us have worked to build. This is not simply about new homes. It is about scale, impact, and sustainability. One of the most concerning aspects of this proposal is that the new homes are being marketed with income qualifications between 65,000 and $140,000 per year. That income range is lower than that of many current residents. introducing a development targeted at a lower income bracket, risk creating economic imbalance within a small established community. Many current homeowners stretch financially to buy their buy here based on the understanding of the neighborhood's character, property values, and long-term stability. Furthermore, this is not a hightraic

suburban corridor. It is a small country style street with limited traffic flow. It was never designed to handle the volume that would come with a new development. There are there are no multiple points of entry or exit. If this project proceeds, our single access road would carry all additional traffic, creating safety risks and potential delays for emergency vehicles. In the event of an accident, blockage or natural emergency, residents would have no alternative route. We are also concerned that many of the surrounding residents have not even been aware of the full scope of this proposal. A significant portion of our neighborhood consists of elderly residents with limited mobility who do not use computers and do not regularly access online postings or public notices. Many do not subscribe to newspapers. The absence of visible opposition should not be interpreted as support rather rather it may reflect limited access to information and the practical challenges some residents face and engage you with the process. Greater outreach and direct communication with affected homeowners would ensure that all voices are heard before any final decision is made. In addition, introducing a large number of new homes could increase crime in the area, further impacting the safety, peace, and quality of life for the families who already live here. This proposal does not reflect thoughtful planning that considers infrastructure capacity, street limitations, or the long-term impact on existing residents. Growth must make sense for the location. In this case, the scale and design of the project are incompatible with a small road style road that lacks multiple access points. We are not opposed to growth or improvements, but we cannot supported development that disregards the realities of our street infrastructure and the families who already call this neighborhood home. We respectfully urge you to reconsider and reject this proposal to protect the safety, stability, and long-term well-being of our community. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, Marie A. McCollum, English, PhD. James A. McCollum and Marie Wright. Uh so were they residents here in the town of Admin or

so when speaking with them uh they only come here maybe two two out of the 12 months out of the year. So that's at the most. Uh the one that I just read the letter from, she lives in New Jersey. Uh the other gentleman who's the I guess overseer of the trust that controls that property, he's in California. Um just to touch on what they mentioned about the process. As with all SUPs, reszonings, tax map uh tax uh zoning amendments and everything, we are required by state to do a public notice in the newspaper of a general circulation. We did that for this one and any other ones. We also sent certify mailers out to all adjacent property owners. We put it on our website and we also post um postings on the property that's going to be in question that where this action will be taking place. So we did

none of the residents up there on Taylor's Street or I call it Taylor's Hill had any kind of problems with this being

No, we only we got one from the one gentleman was sent during the planning commission meeting to kind of represent this family and his with they had the same kind of concerns about density. Um, looking at this, cottage housing does allow for higher density in certain cases. This is not the case with this one. Uh, because it's zoned R3, all four types of dwellings are allowed, whether it's single family, two family, multif family, or townhouse. uh as this is zoned R3, the land card has kind of the square footage for this parcel at and uh calculating it's 101,494 square ft which equals out to about 38.6 units would be allowed by right here. Uh so the proposal that was presented to the planning commission and here today is only proposing I think I read 15. uh they're only coming before the planning commission and town council here today because they have to get a special use permit for this type of dwelling uh development. If another developer came in and just want to plop down a 35- ft high multif family apartment complex, they could by right and they would if they met all the standards, they wouldn't have to go through any other process. So, u and again uh this was approved unanimously again with one abstain and one absent. Um, so if you have any question for me, I'm more than happy to answer. If not, I believe the applicant's here to uh present.

No questions.

I'd like to open up the public public hearing and I'd ask to call Shawn McMurray. Distinguished members of the council, uh, my name is Sean McMurray and, uh, my work address, I work here in Abington. If that's the one you want, it's 848 uh, French Moore Junior Boulevard in Abington. Um, I'm here actually representing Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia. Appalachin Highlands Housing Partners, who is uh responsible for this project, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wellspring Foundation. And I just wanted to um to uh affirm that our board and the foundation support this project. Um it's to develop housing for the workforce, attainable housing. And uh you've heard uh the the uh area median income for a family of four. Um, these homes are intended for people who do most of the work in our community. Um, think of an Abington police officer married to a town employee or maybe a Washington County school teacher married to a Paramont manufacturing employee or perhaps a nurse and a registration clerk from Johnston Memorial Hospital. Those are the kinds of incomes that these homes are intended for. And uh again I just want to let you know that we very much support this project as a foundation. Um our commitment uh and AHP's commitment is that these houses are going to be highquality sick built homes and that they'll only enhance the property values in that neighborhood and will provide good homes for the people who do um the the work in this community, the people that we need to sustain our economy. And uh I just uh hope that you'll consider

all those factors. Thank you. Thank you. small group tonight, huh? Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Maya.

Good evening. Maya Rice, um 1556 Menota Road. Um I'm going to do a little bit of a presentation here. This little Perfect. Um the first thing I'm going to talk about is really why Wellspring went all in on housing. So um like Sean mentioned, the Wellspring Foundation of Southwest Virginia um spoke with their counties, which are Grayson, Russell, Smith, and Washington counties about four years ago when they were first formed. And they asked them, "What's the most important thing that we can focus on in those communities?" and they heard over and over and over workforce housing and workforce. And so they decided to really go in all together because if you see the five pillars here of what the Wellspring Foundation, health, children's and family, workforce development, education, and economic development, every single one of those um requires safe housing. So your health improves if you have safe h housing. Children and families are wellkept. Your workforce can develop. um people can feel comfortable getting an education when they have a safe place to live. And finally um for many years housing and economic development were separated, but we have found more and more um that those two things need to be intertwined. Um you can bring all the jobs in the world you want and we've seen that over and over where counties and towns have had opportunities to bring jobs but those industries have said we can't relocate there because there's no housing for our employees. And really that's every housing type, right? um it's housing type for uh high earners, low earners, etc. However, um like Sean mentioned with Appalachin Highlands Housing Partners, we are not creating affordable housing. In fact, a part of me didn't even want to really present with that even, you know, as part of the the slant or the ideal because truthfully, um, in order to be a nonprofit developer in the 80 to 120% of

the AMI, we had to actually file under a specific additional requirement that says you're actually providing market rate housing, but how you're doing it is in a nonprofit manner. Um, and so again, these houses are to be sold between 200 and $300,000. Um, I pulled the houses off of um the GIS and looked at their tax assessment um which was done in 2025, so it's not several years old. Um, and literally there are two homes, and I'll submit this to the record, but there are only two homes that are above $200,000 in that Henry and Taylor Street. And so, um, we think that we are providing a competent, um, competing profit, for-profit market. Um, the way that we're really getting there to get people in attainable houses or we're stacking programs to get a lower mortgage for them. So, I'll just submit this.

Thank you. So, let's talk a little bit about what is a community land trust because it seemed like people were much more interested in um what we're doing and almost less interested in what the project was actually offering. So, I wanted to do this just to educate you and then for anyone who might be listening to it. Uh community land trust essentially buys land and builds houses like any developer would do. Um, it then sells homes and the one thing that we place on that home is a bas is as a basic deed restriction through a ground lease that says if you buy this house for $215,000 and you live in it for 5 years, you cannot sell that house for $415,000, you need to once again sell it for an attainable price into the future. So basically, it's a pay it forward model that says you get a great mortgage now and when you leave the ne next person also gets a really great attainable price. We'll give a little example here. Um we have a a person named Alex. Um she's currently running a house for $2,000 a month, which if you've looked at rentals in the town of Abington, that's probably a very easy number to get to. She wants to buy a house. She earns approximately $55,000 a year um working as a nurse at the local community hospital. So the CLT buys land, it builds houses like we're proposing tonight. Um the home is listed on the market for $250,000 which we're proposing tonight. The CLT removes the cost of the land from that transaction, which is $62,000. So now when Alex gets into this mortgage, her house is actually $187,000 that she's taking out still valued at $250,000. Um the great thing about the community land trust is that because we are saying it will be affordable in perpetuity, we are saying that we take care of the of the land. Um so what happens during those five years? So Alex makes a

payment on the mortgage um for about $1,400 a month. She pays down the mortgage. the house earns a 2% appreciation each year. And so when she sells the house the next time, now she's going to sell it for $26,000. She has earned equity from the mortgage. She's also earned equity from appreciation. And she saved $600 a month by having a mortgage rather than renting at the high rate she was renting. So in 5 years, she'll leave with $31,000 in total equity. She saved $36,000 in a lower mortgage versus rent. And that really means that Alex could go ahead and buy her next house um with that $70,000. And so it really is a very um interesting way in which people can gain equity. And I I did that right back in probably the early or the later 90s when I bought my first home. I think I bought it for $89,000 and sold it for about 106. like that was sort of the more traditional way that people went about it until housing prices have really skyrocketed and you don't find that environment anymore with the natural a natural uh appreciation. So that's kind of how the community land trust works and I want to talk to you a little bit about the Taylor Street project. Like Gabe mentioned tonight we are not here to ask you to increase density. We are not here to ask you to reszone this to something that it isn't already zoned for. We are not even here to ask you to do anything that is really outside of what we would be allowed by right. What we are asking you to do is to approve a type of use that in our code allows for a very special layout um that really attracts community into a space where we think based on the letter that you heard tonight community already exists. The underlying zoning would allow us to have 12 single family units. The underlying zoning would allow us to

have 10 sets of duplexes, so we could have 20 units here. The underlying zoning would allow us to have 25 town homes, so we could plant three rows of seven town homes. And it would also, like Gabe mentioned, allow us 36 units in a multif family apartment complex. Those uses we don't think would match this community. Those uses are allowed by right. Um those uses I would not be standing up here in front of you asking for a special use permit. um we can do those and just work with town staff. We are really trying to look at cottage housing because we think that it is about creating community. It's not because we're looking for the highest density here. So, um when we have a lot of questions about that, um I just want to go back to the fact that we're not asking for anything that we couldn't already do. We're essentially asking for it to be arranged in a way um that promotes open space. So, why this location? Um, it's less than a mile from the William King Museum, Main Street Retail and Restaurants, the Barter Theater, HMG and Ballad Health Campus. So, we think it's a perfect location for homes for workforce. I mean, we see nurses living here. We see barter theater employees living here, William King folks living here. Like, we just really think that this is going to be something that's really clever and innovative. And we think that um there'll be a group of people that really enjoy the fact that it's walkable to a lot of things. a little bit about the surrounding neighborhood. I know the letter brought up um that people have um taken care of their homes and we believe that to be true. Um we think that the size of homes, as you can see here, um that we will have a compatible size um with what is in the surrounding neighborhood. We're not looking to do something that is out of the ordinary. The key thing with a cottage housing is that it really requires a lot of open space. And so we have identified um a variety of things. We identified a dog

park, a gathering space, and a pollinator garden. Um, with the 15 units times 400 ft of open space, we only need 6,000 square ft of open space, and we have provided well and above that. There was a question at the planning commission about the steepness and slope of the pollinator garden. Um, but I will say that we don't need to go up to that steepness and slope. Only counting up to the 12% is still plenty of open space based on the code. So that really isn't that really there isn't a mistake there. Um we will gladly leave a buffer along the steepest part where the trees are. The other thing that we are really specific to do is come and talk with the town of Abington prior to starting this project. So we came to them um with a few ideas and we said, "Okay, what would actually work for you? Um what would make this compatible with this area?" And a couple of things. We made sure that the turning radius for the fire department worked. We made sure that public works was satisfied with that same turning radius so that we can actually have individual garbage cans and not have like an apartment complex mentality, but you know there's no not going to be any dumpsters there. Um there's water and sewer connections with capacity um in um Taylor Street and as um we have noted there is curbon gutter on Taylor Street which means that we also have to provide curb gutter. Um you don't find that in a lot of streets but here you do. And finally, we are willing to be a stormwater partner. What does that mean? Um that means that the town of Abington um applied for storm water grant um to basically improve this storm water um feature that's on Wheeler Street and WY Street. Um that feature um needs to be improved um for the entire area. it helps with the um best management practices because the town of Abington does their own storm water um review. And so they applied for a grant

and when we went for this project they said oh hey by the way we are looking for a match um for improving that area and so we said sure we'll pay the whole match um to improve that storm water area. So, while we could have argued that we're only putting 15 units on here and we're actually helping the adjoining property owners, if they ever want to develop, we simply said yes, we will go ahead and pay the whole $107,000. That allows the density in our um space to continue to be 15 and it allows us to be a partner. And I think that's the key thing that um you'll hear over and over from us is just that idea of partnership that um if you go into all of these developments and you're just you know trying to get the highest density, well that's a very different thing than what we want to do. We really want to work with the town. We want to make sure that we're working with the community to see, you know, what they what they want. Like Gabe mentioned, um town staff will be the ones that review the final design. We have contacted three different developers at this point. Um, and we had sort of them provide us a soft analysis of what they would do for cottages. You see that one of the developers in the upper left, we got a little bit more of a modern um, slant to that. We got a very traditional sort of southern one over there in the red with the flag. And then there's a developer out of Asheville that provided us um, a sample of the work that they have done in Asheville that has these blue home this blue home in the center. Once we receive approval, we will put this out as an RFP. Um, and at that point, we will um see who will be our final our final designer. And with that, then we would come to the town staff and make sure that it meets all the cottage requirements. So, with that, the proposed 15-unit cottage development um complies with the with the Z section 7-2-13 of the Town of Abington zoning ordinance for density, parking, landscaping, lighting, open space, as Gabe mentioned. um some of the

alternative design standards that were addressed at the um planning commission. One is that the exterior wall material may consist of wood, cement, fiber, stucco, brick and stone. Um we asked to do a high quality vinyl board and batten with a um horizontal l because we think that looks very cottage and also if you look at the entire neighborhood there um they actually all have a vinyl sighting on the homes that are in that area. The other alternative design um element that we identified was um it says sim simulated stone, wood, wood, stone or brick may be used as to detail homes. Trim may be wood, cement, fiberboard, stucco, brick or stone material. And we had asked planning commission to um allow us to do some composite trim um that may not all be wood. Um, and finally, when we um are talking about pallets of colors, um, some of it mentions it almost seems like you'd have sort of a Key West vibe if you kind of went by what the code says, um, with every house being a different color and a different style. Um, so we're just wanting to make sure that, you know, you can see here that as long as you have maybe one or two styles or one or two colors, um, the cottage development really kind of thrives in a little bit more of, um, a similar fashion across the unit. So, um, that's again part of that alternative design. So, our final request is really that you all approve the Taylor Street special use permit um a cottage development with alternative designs and the conditions that we indicated that could be included are um that staff approves the final design and all final plans would be submitted to staff including lighting, landscaping, signage and infrastructure. Um, as Gabe mentioned, we have not completed our um, storm water plan yet because again, if this comes through and then we partner with the town, obviously there's going to have to be some work done on

the actual storm water feature and then that will shift with how how and what we submit to you for that. Um, so if there's any other questions, I can take them. I will say probably just a couple of comments off of the the letter that was submitted. Um, you know, again, the house prices all being relatively in the same price range that we're looking for, um, we actually think our price range will potentially be higher and so we think that we'll improve the neighborhood. As Sean said, the median family income in Washington County, um, which includes the town of Abington is $79,000. So that could be, you know, we're looking at 65 to $100,000. So it could be one person making $100,000 or it could be two people making 50. So this in no way, shape or form is affordable housing. Um affordable housing comes in at the much lower income levels. And at those lower income levels, you're talking about a family of four making $38,000 a year. We're not doing that. This isn't section 8. Um this is really a way in which we can ensure that homes stay attainable in perpetuity. Um, and that's really where the community land trust piece comes in. Um, and so with that, I will answer um, any questions you might have.

What What's the time frame here? When do you hope to start? Sure. Well, let's ask Matthew Wayne when he can get started on the project.

Um, yeah. So, if you all approve this tonight, um, what we're looking to do is basically put it out for bid um, as far as the project goes. And then also Matthew will be working on all of the engineering documentation um to submit that to town staff. So hopefully between the design and the bid process that um before Shawn McMurray retires in December, we've got some units on the ground so that his dream will have come true. So, um, and you know, we're we're, uh, looking at parcels in all of our counties, but, um, one of the things that we just really like about this project is that it felt like it just would fit right into that neighborhood. Um, and so, um, yes, we're trying to basically have houses on the ground by December. I

I think this is a good idea. I I've just got one question and and that is the getting in and getting out of there. you know, with, you know, I know that that neighborhood very well. I know when you make that right turn off of Russell Road, it's kind of like that loop. Is there anything in the, you know, maybe from the back adjoining? I know Henry Street is at the top of the hill there. So, I don't know if there could be, you know, just by reading. Sure. So, I will tell you that Henry Street and Taylor Street do not connect.

No. Yes. Um so some of the concerns that we had heard about traffic um connecting there um you know we indicated that really that didn't have anything to do with this because that's a dead end street on that end. on this end. Um, two things. One, the development has a loop through drive, which we thought was really important. When we first laid it out, we tried putting parking in the back and on the sides, and those all ended up with situations where, yeah, you'd have to kind of dead end, turn around, and come back. And so, when we worked with the town of Abington staff um in our conceptual meeting, they really came up with this design for us. Um I think maybe even um Chief Estus like drew it out and said now firet truck can get through if you do two entrances which again

limited us, right? So we probably could have got more units on here if we had not done that. So we have an in and out. And then I think the comment in the letter about um this being a stopping point. This is not a deadend road. So Taylor goes up and loops all the way around and comes out the other side. So, frankly, if for some reason um there was a situation here, a fire or some other emergency um situation and the road was blocked, there would be a second entrance for the all of the neighbors. And and I really think that there is another entrance, you know, up where the the tower is where the church is at? Yeah, you can go. Can't you get in? Can't you get into that neighborhood from there to make a left or right onto the to the road that that loops around to this?

Yeah. So, it's not really I mean, it's actually not a dead end road. I mean, it is actually got quite a bit of access for those purposes. Um, and I think I think that addresses everything that it was in the in the letter, but um yeah, we think it would be great. We think it'll help the neighborhood. We don't think it's going to hinder it. And I think from staff findings um for the special use permit, they also agreed with that. So, we hope you vote to approve it. Does anyone else have any questions for my Thank you, Maya. Good job.

Thank you. And now with that being said, we'll close the public hearing and we'll move on to public hearing for proposed zoning text amendments. Chapter 44, article 5, section 5-3-1, boundaries and proposed zoning map amendments to extend the entrance corridor overlay district to the following parcels. I think you could probably summarize those, mayor. Yeah. How how should I do that? I was going to ask you all I think I think those listed there you can see on the screen online sufficient.

Yes, sir. We will we will go with what our attorney Cam Bell has said with that. So, we don't have to do that. Everybody will agree with me on the brevity of that one.

And I'd like to ask Gabe to come forward on that one too, please, to provide with a little information on that. All right. Gabrifar, Town of Evan. Um, so yes, the town of Avenue has requested approval of a zone text amendment and zone map amendment for specific parcels within corporate limits along Porfield Highway to be included in an entrance corridor. Porfield Highway is a highly trafficked route uh that is a primary entrance into town. Um hopefully I'm a lot of the same mercy that was just uh and I don't have to read all those just as seen here if that's good enough. Uh well most of the subject properties are currently zoned in the general business district which is B2. There is one parcel to the north that is zoned AFOS which is just agricultural forest open space and then and five parcels to the northwest that are zoned high density residential R3. The zone map amendment and zone text amendment requires a recommendation and approval from the planning commission which was uh given and then final approval is at the town council level here. So as we are here today so staff findings per code of Virginia 15.2-2283 the purpose of a zoning ordinance shall promote health safety and general welfare of the of the public. Therefore requiring that a zone text amendment and zone map amendment be reviewed for numerous specific items prior to the plan commission recommendation of approval and town council f final approval. Uh the ZMA findings are the following. A consider the pro the proper relationship relationship of such amendment to the entire zoning plan. The underlying zoning for each parcel will not change. Adding an overlay district to specific parcels imposes additional regulations and will not have any adverse effects on the health, safety or general welfare of the of the public. There are no conflicts with any provisions of the zoning ordinance. B. Consider the integrity and validity of the zoning districts described in this chapter. Porfell Highway is a major

transportation route within the town of Abidan leading northbound to other counties and southbound to interstate exit 14. Porfield Highway connects Russell Road and West Main Street. Two major entrance routes to downtown and the historic corridor. Add a significant access route to the historic district. Porfield Highway may be taken into the entrance corridor to ensure future development is compatible, attractive, and well planned. C. Avoid isolated unplanned spot zoning changes in the zoning district map. As I said, all parcels will be taken to the existing overlay district. The underlying zoning will not change. Uh D recognize that a certain element of stability is desire is desirable in land use controls, but conditions and standards will change. All parcels taken with into the entrance quarter will require stupider permanence or COA for new developments or redevelopments. Existing structures and sign shall be considered grandfathered or legal non-conforming if they are non-conforming. In that case, uh I think there's videos here if you want to see them, but I'll just go to this map here. So the green is just regular parcels. The red is our existing entrance corridor along West Main and Russell Road. The parcels highlighted in yellow are the ones that we're proposing to bring in to the entrance corridor. Uh this data is based off of the county data that we get. Uh we did have one gentleman, well two gentlemen come in and ask just a question of will my house that's on Lakeside Drive be included in the entrance corridor? Um, if you see I'm not sure if you can see over here. So, how the county data is set up is that for some reason when you click this parcel, this gets selected. When you select this one, this gets selected. We would not have the houses be in the entrance corridor because they're not adjacent to Porterfield. We would just have when we send this to our GIS people to do this map that just to select those that are adjacent to Porterfield be

selected. uh when the gentleman came in, he said that was a pond and the other one's so small that nothing really can be done. But again, it's just kind of housekeeping to make sure we have that uniform uh district there. Uh so back to the findings, E considered the right of all citizens to be treated reasonably. Again, adjacent property owners were sent one certified mailer in January. So we actually went a little above and beyond here because we're asking for this to be in the overlay district. So, some people might not know it if you're not in that district or close to it. Uh, so we sent another certified mailer in January just to say, "Hey, this is coming in February. If you have any questions, let us know." We didn't receive any. Uh, and then two certified mailers were sent in February. This is kind of when the official state process started. So, one was for planning commission was was one was for town council. Public notices were issued in the newspaper of general circulation and posted online to the town website and social media page and posted at town hall on the kiosk boss box outside on the first floor and field notices were placed along the corridor there. So we put them in the medians. A list of parcel numbers, owner names, and physical addresses that will be affected by the possible zoning text and map amendment are included as attachment A. and then f evaluate all changes based on the comprehensive plan and comprehensive analysis of community conditions. The evident comprehensive plan was adopted in 2020. Uh there are specific references to the entrance corridor and poorfield highway in Abington. In 2003, Evident adopted a historic district entrance corridor overlay district to achieve an enhanced land development pattern and retain the town's historic character. New development within entrance corridors leading to the historic district must meet design standards for landscaping, signage, architecture, lighting and site planning and be approved by the planning commission. Porterfield Highway serves as a major north transportation corridor to adjacent counties. And again and again it's just uh mentioned as a major corridor. Overall staff can conclude that the inclusion of the specific par

parcels into the entrance corridor as as I've identified here shall not constitute spot zoning and is in line with the town of Abidan comprehensive plan adopted in 2020. And then you see kind of the revisions that we're doing to the text there. Uh we are taking out historic district entrance court overlay because we found that when we say that people think am I in the old and historic district? That's not the case. You're in the overlay. you're in the entrance quarter overlay district. And we looked at and we looked at other kind of areas. Some call it gateway district, so they don't have anything about historic in there. So, it just kind of helps take out that confusion.

Um, again, I just put Porterfield Highway within town limits because if you go northbound still, you're still on Porterfield, but you're in the county. So, just to make it kind of clearcut there. Um, this was approved unanimously unanimously with no absence or absentee president. With that, um, I have numbers for Porville Highway if you want me to read them off for how much daily daily traffic there is, but I can just move forward with that. And yeah, that's all I have. If you have any questions for him, more than happy to answer. We'll open up the public here if anybody got any questions for for Gabe. One one thing that I have like that you know it's been concerning and a lot of residents have has spoke to me about this you know I think this is a good idea but I think that we need to come up with some way to like you know keep the tractors and trailers out of the town of Abby and I don't know I don't know if you know I know that everyone has to have deliveries in the town of A but I mean like when when like there's

an accident or something like that you know

yeah it's not exactly Germaine on this But the the issue is is that in the early 80s, the town council had requested the state to get the town ought to be a certain designation on as a state road or as a as a throughway for whatever purpose. And once that was requested, it was granted. And there is a process to get rid of it, but it's almost impossible to get rid of cuz what it basically would require is uh the that they would have to advertise it, the feds would, and then if anybody objected, that could be one trucker objecting and then you couldn't get rid of it. So, um I love the concept, but it's all would be functionally impossible to do. Um, but thankfully the VOD's working with us pretty strongly about to get the other things through there which should help relieve some of that pressure should there be an accident on the interstate.

Thank you for that, Mike. Um, but I think this is a good idea. Me personally, I do think this is a good idea. Gabe, thank you.

Now, I'd like to open up the public hearing if anybody would like to come forward. If no one wishes to come forward, I would like to close the public hearing or the you have a public hearing on that as well too. Next, we'll move on to resolutions. We have one resolution tonight and that or we have several resolutions, excuse me. We have three of those. The first is to propose special use permit for the home occupancy category C detached art studio in a highdensity residential district R tax map number 014-12-31 address 338 Land Street Avenue in Virginia. I'd like to make a motion that uh we approve the special use permit as you just stated with the conditions that adequate parking be identified with appropriate striping and the meets and bounds of the property be identified as suggested by the planning commission.

I'll second that motion. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call RO. Miss Qu. I Vice Mayor Austin I and Mary Anderson I the second will be the proposed special use permit for the cottage housing development in the highdensity residential district R-3 tax map ID011-1-13 to be determined Taylor Street Avenue in Virginia I'd like to make a motion that we accept this special use special use permit Cottage chie. Do I have a second?

I'll second that. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Miss Wedge. Hi. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mary Anderson. I. And the third will be the resolution supporting Liberty Fest having its history as America's history. And um I will ask Gabe to come up and provide us with some information on this. Gab's getting the salary. Gabe is working it today, dude. Earning it, dude. This should be the last one. Yes, sir.

Um, so this has been kind of talked about leading last year and and early months of this year and everything. So, the United States is coming up on their 250th anniversary of being a nation and uh we are uh and every state's partaking in that celebration. So our states is BA250. Uh we are having an event called Libertyfest. Evidence history is America's history. And so where we'll have a festival at the muster grounds and around town uh to really promote America's history, but also Abidance history here and how they played a part in helping get independence from the British. Um so we are applying for a grant from to the tobacco commission and it requires us to have some sort of match there. I'll just go to the fiscal impact here. So, we already previously were awarded and accepted 27,900. Uh, that'll be used as part of our match plus the 5,000 of incind administrative cost. So, anything that we have to do to help set up the event, manage it, coordinate it. Uh, that would bring it to 32,900. Essentially, there is zero fiscal impact because un unless the cost exceed 50,000, which we're now looking to that to happen since we budgeted it for it. So, we're requesting from the tobacco commission 17,100. And again, once that's kind of closed down, that grants closed out, that money would be brought back into us here. So, we have to budget for the 17,100 to be in our budget there, but then again, it'll be reimbursed to us once the grants close out. So, there's really no fiscal impact here. Uh, but again, for this grant, we need a resolution from town council and uh just to move forward with it. If you have any questions about LibertyFest or the event or anything, more than happy to answer. No questions.

No question. Anyone like to make a motion on the resolution supporting the Liberty Fest? I'll make that motion to support the Liberty Fest. You have a second. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call roll. Miss Quetch. I. Vice Mayor Austin. I mayor Anderson.

I. With that, we're going to move on to the first reading of ordinance. We have one on that and it's going to be the first reading of ordinance for the proposed zoning text amendment chapter 44 article 5 section 5-3-1 boundaries and proposed zoning map amendment to extend the entrance corridor overlay district to the following parcels which were explained earlier on the screen and And I'm going to ask Gabe, well, I'll ask Gabe to come up and give us one more little brief instance on that. Gabe is now in overtime.

Uh so again, we're just looking to bring Porfield Highway that's in the portion of town into the entrance corridor. uh most of it is developed already, but there are some parcels that are pretty large parcels that still could be developed. And so to ensure that we have a well planned identifiable kind of image uh for that when somebody enters town, they know like, oh, I'm in Abby. That's why we want to bring this portion in here because it's a major part for everybody either going to different counties or different parts of the United States. So again, when people drive into the town, they want to know, oh, I'm in Abington. So that's part of the reason why we

and the practical import of this is I think you guys know like you said instead of being an old historic that would go to HPRB if you're in the entrance corridor then you go to planning commission. So there's a little bit more oversight for that than would be at an ordinary parcel. So that's why yeah and again they're not subject to that's why we wanted to change some of the text so people don't think oh I'm in the old historic district I have to meet certain historical guidelines. It's like no, you just have to meet really the image that we have and it's much less strict of standards when you go to plan commission. I think especially for this area, you know, I really think that's a good idea. Anybody got anybody got any questions for Gabe? None. Um, this proposal be rejected.

Hearing no comments from this matter, we will place this on the March 19th agenda for the second reading if that's okay. Sorry, I forgot we were in March already. Yeah. Yeah. Is that okay with everyone? It's good. Yes, sir.

All right. Um, we have one second reading tonight of ordinance. The second reading of ordinance is to repeal, amend, and reenact article two, sewers and sewage disposable, including revisions to 74-36 and division 4, wastewater discharge, 74 through 92, 74 through 93, 74 through 95, 74 through 110, 74 through 128, 74 through 141, 74 through 143, 74 through 158, 74 through 160, 70 or Yeah. from 160 to 162 74 through 167-68 74 through 182 74-185 74-207 and 74-213 relating the permanent standard permits monitoring and reporting inspections enforcements and prohibited discharges and we will ask Mike Serret to come forward with that Please.

Uh again, this is the second reading of this ordinance. Uh last time we haven't changed anything in it. It is just to update and amend our current ordinance to the newer updated standards uh from the state and the federal government in our sewer and disposal. and it will update, excuse me, our uh local limits and our in our current ordinance and update those to the new standards. So, I mean, nothing's changed uh other than, you know, this just the second reading. Anybody have any questions for Mike? No questions.

Questions? I'd move we approve uh on second reading this ordinance to repeal, amend, and reenact as set forth uh in the agenda item here tonight. I'll second. Any further discussion? Kimfield, please call roll. Miss Qu. I. Vice Mayor Austin. Hi. And Mayor Anderson. All right. Thank you, Mike. Thank you.

Next, we have a consideration of bids. A consideration of bids. for on call general maintenance and repairs. Just stay right here in the front row, Mike. We'll call you right back up. It's a consideration of bids for on call general maintenance and repairs contracting services. And we're going to ask Mike Serretes to come up and present that to us.

Thank you. Uh so public works put out a RFP for uh general contracting services. Uh, and this is to really just update and go again. We had one previously and now we're we let that one expire and we went with a new RFP. We did get two respondents uh from Belffor Restoration and Appalachian Contracting. Uh, both of them responded. They were both fairly equal in what they responded with for the services that we asked for uh in their price range. Uh this does not require anything. All the items that we would task order them with is already in our budget and or grant funds or emergency services that we need. Uh so we did have a bid opening on February the 19th. Uh both of them were responsible respondents and after doing a review of both of their proposals uh our staff recommends awarding an on call contract of both Bellfor uh Property Restoration and Appalachin Contracting LLC. Uh these guys will be providing services like I said through already budgeted line items and through any grant funding that we may need and any emergency services that we may need for contracting whether it's you know lead mitigation uh building electrical uh water sewer stuff in our facilities. Does anybody have any questions for Mike Sur?

Would anyone like to make a motion on the consideration of bids for the on call general maintenance and repair contracting service? I'd move that uh we approve uh the contracts for Bill 4 and Appalachia Contracting uh jointly in their areas of expertise. I'll second that. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call a roll. Miss Wedge, I. Vice Mayor Austin, I. And Mayor Anderson, I got a Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you.

We have no new business tonight. We have no old business tonight. We got miscellaneous business and communications from our town manager. And first we're going to be he's going to be presenting the 2025 Barter Theater Recap with Katie Brown and director Matt Campbell, managing director of the Barter Theater. Good to see you, Katie. Yes. Good to see you, Matt. Good evening, members of the town council and staff. I'm I'm Katie Brown, producing artistic director at Barter Theater. and I'm Matt Campbell, the managing director, and we want to talk a little bit about how 2025 went and what's ahead for 2026.

Before we start though, we want to say as always, thank you guys so much for your support and having them thrive together when we work together. And so for us, it's just so invaluable that you've supported us, continue to support us, and we're grateful for that. Um, a few things to highlight from 2025 is Grinch became the most selling show in Barter's history. So we welcome more patrons with French than we have for any other performance in Bart history. So that's a very exciting thing.

Just some numbers for everybody. We welcomed 128,700 people um for our resco or what we call our resco productions which take place in either Smith or Gillum. 18 productions, 532 performances. We had 19,604 student visitors and then 22,349 regional visitors. We consider reasonable visitors anybody outside of 100 miles is how we calculate that. For some reference, um 103,000 people come to barter from outside of Abington and Washington County. So the amount of folks that we bring in from outside those areas is is pretty significant. Um, and then we were able to on our bartered players tour, which tours regionally to some of the poorest counties in the country into West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and then up and down the eastern seabboard. Um, so we saw about 26,900 students on that tour alone. Just some numbers in terms of our employment. 41 full-time employment uh folks. That's 42 weeks a year or 52 weeks a year. 86 seasonal or full-time employees. We consider seasonal anything from seven weeks to 51 weeks. Our average in there tends to be somewhere between 27 and 30 weeks. But those are the folks we bring in to do the work. You know, we have a workforce conversation happening without a doubt in terms of where do we find those folks, where do we house those folks, which we'll talk about a little bit later. We had 21 part-time or independent contractors and we had over 215 volunteers last year. That number has actually already gone up to 230 for 2026. So, some really exciting things happening. Um, we're we're very we're very excited about the 2025 numbers. Um, I've been able to chat with some of you about it, but in our regional focus, what we're trying to do is actively bring folks from outside 100 miles. A, we know that their night stays are a

little longer. So, if we could increase that night stay, heads and beds tax, we want to do that. We know that they spend more in restaurants and local establishments. For for us, that's important. These are some of the areas that we're focusing on. Uh what you see here is a heat map. So this is a heat map from where we see the cluster of folks attending all over the country. But for us, we started a pilot program in Knoxville last year um because we saw a big boost in 2024 into 2025 from Knoxville. So, we've done a destination barter, which is really destination Abington um punch there, which now we're going to move into the Pedmont Triad, uh Charlotte, DC, a few other areas to try to continue to get folks from outside that 100 mile radius into town. Um our revenue sources, just because we think transparency is a really important conversation here, uh the bulk of our revenue comes from ticket sales. That is both a blessing and a curse in some way, right? because we want those folks here, but that also means that we have to continue to produce world-class theater for them to want to come here. We're very excited about that, but we know we have other opportunities in some unearned income. And you'll see those breakdowns in terms of capital contributions, government foundations, and then individual givers. So in this 6535 split, we want to continue to try to balance that as much as we can because it takes a little bit of pressure off of ticket sales, but also we want to see both of them rise together. Our expense breakdown as with anybody is personnel. Uh so you see that 68.5% of our work comes or um expenses come from salaries and wages. And then those other breakdowns are across all things sales and services, advancement, education, production, and then building and equipment. Remembering that we have seven buildings across Abington that we take care of and maintain. And so that that becomes a big expense for us pretty fast.

2026 is off and rolling. We started the year with a soft renovation of our lounge space. I hope you'll get over there to see it at some point. It's the part of the building attached to Smith Theater to make it more welcoming and uh more visitor friendly. looks really really lovely. Uh we're going to be doing 20 shows this year, which for most theater folks around the country, that's a that's a that's a ton of theater for for one place to be doing. And you can see a lot of the titles here. You can see we have adventures like The Three Musketeers and The Da Vinci Code. We've got some new comedies like Pickle Ball and Savannah Sipping Society. Some large scale musicals that are a really good draw like uh Guys and Dolls and Elf. this fall is going to be focused towards American history. Um, like was mentioned before at this meeting, Libertyfest is this fall and Virginia 250 um is going to go along with that. So, our Virginia 250 uh production will be a world premiere of a play called King's Mountain that focuses on the over mountain men, uh, the Muster Grounds and what Abington had to do with American history. We'll also have an interactive museum in the lounge at that time of being bringing people from around the country and around the state to experience what's special about Abington. And as always, we have Appalachin works in our season. You'll see wooden snowflakes there. Um and also a play that we just closed that we're particularly proud of, Trains, that um that celebrated the uh black appalachin experience as well. Uh you'll see uh coming up here next. We also have shows for young audiences that we always do. The Barter Players usually bring in about 25,000 uh students and uh and young people to shows here at the theater in addition to about 25,000 on tour. Uh the ones that are in color up there are our season here in house. You'll see lots of classic stories and literature. We love bringing schools and families in. And

the exciting thing going on tour is that we are expanding our tours quite a bit. Um, we'll be doing two Christmas tours simultaneously and we are also out on the road right now. As Matt mentioned, we go to um to students who don't get theater any other way as well as places that don't know about Abington and Barter yet up and down the eastern seabboard and into the Midwest. So, we're excited to be expanding and we think we'll see about 5,000 more students on tour this year if all goes to plan. other programs that we have going on. Um we are working to develop new plays, new artists, and new conversations. Let me start with conversations first. You'll see Barter Connects on there. That is a program that we have that after specific performances, we bring in a nonprofit or an expert to talk about thing themes from that show. Um so we want to be able to shine the light on good work going on in the region. The other things that you see are new play a new play development and we are developing new plays and new playwrights in every age range. Young playwrights festival hundreds and hundreds of high school students learning how to write plays and submitting those and we have a a great festival where they they uh perform the their shows are performed by uh professionals. Uh we've got college playwriting festival, black stories, black voices and the appalachin festival of plays and playwrights. So you all may not know it um and the people watching may not know it but Abington has become a premier place in the nation to develop new plays. Um there are people thousands and thousands of plays and playwrights have come through these programs and um we are we are proud to say that while for many theaters producing one world premiere would be something to tout in a season 13 of our 20 shows this year are either world premieres or were originally world premieres at barters that barter that we commissioned. So

lots of exciting things going on there as well. Um just wanted to um uh also just mention uh some of the ease of access that we have. We believe that theater is should be available to everybody. And you'll note we have pay what you will the first performance of every single show that we that we do. Barter Day performances where people can still trade ham for Hamlet. They can come and pay food that we give to the local uh food shelters for shows. There are $22 seats available for every single uh performance. We want to make sure everybody can experience the show. Um, so we have open caption and hearing loop, sensory friendly for people with with sensory sensitivities. And we give away an awful lot of tickets to students. Years ago, we heard that that there were students who were being made to stay back in their classrooms if they couldn't afford tickets with the rest of their classes. And we didn't like that. So we uh we give a lot of of free and reduced tickets and bus subsidies to help u those schools and students who wouldn't be able to come otherwise.

We often get asked what are challenges we're facing um at proposed housing. Uh we've had great conversations with Wellspring very excited about the project they're working on certainly and do feel like it could be a benefit for our artists and our staff um here in the region. cost of insurance and I'm sure everybody in this room will shake their head with this but uh we are at that because of where we fall in terms of number of employees and the way that our our policies work. We hit over the 50 which drastically increase it. So we have um things we're looking at there. Uh rising overhead of course our workforce availability is that we don't necessarily have a direct pipeline in this community to put people into the work that we do. So we bring them from other places. Well, that means we have to house them in many ways from those other places. So we have the barter in which is 45 units that can house up to 47 people. But that puts a lot of pressure on us to continue both that but then other times where we have more folks we have to house than we have at the barter end. Um dependence on ticket sales which we talked about keeping those tickets affordable but also trying to how we balance with the raising rising overhead for us. Discretionary spending is a big conversation for us on individuals. What makes them want to choose going to the theater? What makes them want to choose art or the experience? So for us that is really about a destination and how it's not just about a play, it's about a service. And then coming up in 2027, very exciting, we have an ARC grant to redo the inside of Smith, which we're very, very excited about, but inherently it means that we will have to close the theater for 4 months to make that happen. So for us just to try to figure out how we continue to support Abington, how we continue to support our own employees with that closure knowing that Gillum will be open, but that we'll have just that time um that we'll have to figure out.

And mostly we just wanted to say thank you for your continued support, the way that you've supported us in the past, all of the things that we're doing here. We're proud that they are in partnership with Abington. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. I have one question if I could please. something that sort of touched my heart when you said something about students not being able to attend. Yes. And that you give a good number of tickets away. Are there still students that that are in that uh predicament that they're unable to attend?

What we've been hearing often is that they will then divide the costs among students. Um uh uh we will we will help some and the teachers will help some um or the school will help some, but we are definitely always raising money for that to try to help offset some of those costs to make sure that every student if their class is coming, we want them all to be able to come. Is there a separate fund for that? Yes, we have a we do that. It's the student matinea support. Um that's what helps us make that happen. Thank you. Thank you. When does Katherine Bush write all these plays?

Right now. She's she's written four this year. So, and lots of other playrs, too. We've got a a lot of people, a lot of plays that have been on the stage in the last few weeks of brand new playrs. It's really exciting. Any other questions? Thank you all so much. The um that was a long report for me. I apologize about that. No, that was outstanding to No, they they always did such amazing job over there. Um, I just want to say also like we as the town are season sponsors, but we don't take the tickets that come from being a season sponsor. They can be redeploy those to the students, which is good.

Um, but yeah, I don't have any uh specific report other than to say uh uh the the uh not the groundhog. What's that little fill thing is wrong? So, I think it's going to be 75 on Friday. So, we're very pretty pleased about that. uh which means that spring is coming and weeds are coming. But thankfully we pre-treat because my honor got them on a pretty strict schedule and they they haven't forgotten that. So uh it's going to be beautiful here in a couple weeks. Uh so looking forward to that. Mike, I had not got to ask you before. Uh we discussed some signage for Abington High School for state championships. What's the status?

So I got the artwork from the principal this morning. uh the what it's going to look like. And so the staff right now we have the um wayfinding signage is in or right now they're they're planning on where they're going to put it and how to put it in and we have to come up with a design. Uh so basically what the the it would have u we have a lot of championships. So the whole idea would be to have it and then have spaces bung us down below. I just need to get the final design put together and but it is it is in process. It just hasn't happened quite yet. But the wayfinding signage because we had a pretty cold winter, they we had to wait for it to thaw out before we could start drilling into stuff. But it it is coming. Um it is coming. So, but it basically forget which town it was that I got got it from. Got to get the general design from someone. I sent it over to Miss Combo. Uh and she was good with the general design. But um because sometimes what I've seen ones where they have like individual players, we have too athletes and we have too many of those. But just sticking with with teams with room to grow. So

thank you.

And we'll move on to council members reports. Donna, do you have any I'd just like to say it's such a privilege to serve and I love having Vice Mayor Alson, no additional reports, sir.

Well, I have to say um Friday I attended the Barter theater, the black playwriting. Um I thought that was a wonderful thing that you are doing for the black community and and everything with the barter theater. So continue to keep doing what you're doing. I got to meet the young man from Yale. Actually, he came to my restaurant as well and spent a little time with his family. But it was a very nice crowd there and um I think that this is maybe about the fifth year that we've done this. Um I've attended the last three and I feel like the crowds are are doing nothing but getting bigger. So thank you all for what you are doing for the black community here in Southwest Virginia and the town of that being said I don't have anything further as well too. Um Mike Cochran looks like you might have something. So, it was bumped in South Carolina is where they had the general idea. Charles, so this was what I had sent over to uh to Leslie. Uh basically what it would do is take their their artwork and incorporate on this general design and then it would have room to grow. Uh we'll make it really tall because we have great teams and hopefully they'll uh they'll fill it. So

great with that being said, we will move on to appointments to boards and committees. First will be the tourism advisory committee to appoint and fill the unexpired term of Hannah. I can't pronounce that last name. I can I as a retail or downtown business owner and the second will be the economic development authority reappoint Link Elmore who is eligible to serve an additional term.

Well, I I I say we go ahead. We only had one applicant for the um tourism advisory and we like to nominate Morgan Ford, appoint him to the tourism advisory committee and also reappoint Link Elmore to economic development. I'll second that motion. Any further discussion? Kim, if you'll please call RO. Miss Qu. I. Vice Mayor Austin. I and Mary Anderson. And with that being said, we will call this meeting a journ. Thank you all for coming out.