Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Jason Barney. I serve as the chair for the Ron City Board of Zoning Appeals. I would like now to call to order the February 11th BZA hearing. First welcoming all of our board members, all the running city staff, our applicant for today, and any members of the public for who are present for today's hearing. This hearing is being broadcast via YouTube. We ask that you please turn the sound off on all phones and electronic devices during the hearing. You have registered to speak on a particular matter. When the public comment portion of the application has begun, please wait to be recognized in turn. Please then state your name and residential address clearly so that the secretary to the board may record the proceedings accurately. It's important to note that all persons shall be afforded an opportunity to speak and state their views concerning all aspects of these matters. With all that being stated, Miss Clerk, can we begin by having you please take the role?

Sure. Thank you. Mr. Garner here, Mr. Hamler here. Mr. Rogan here. Mr. Miller here. Miss Smith here. Mr. Barney here. All right. Board members, do we have a motion to approve the agenda for today? So move. Thank you, Mr. Garner. Do we have a second? Second. Mr. Logan. Miss Clark, can we take the vote on approving today's agenda? Mr. Garner, I. Mr. Hamlock, I. Mr. Logan, I. Mr. Miller, I. Miss Smith. Hi. Mr. Barney. I. Okay. Board, do we have a motion to approve the minutes from the January 14th BZA hearing? I move. Thank you, Mr. Miller. We have a second.

Second. Thank you, Mr. Hamler. Mr. Clark, can we go ahead and take the vote for approving the minutes from the January 14th hearing? Mr. Garner, hi. Mr. Hamlin, I Mr. Logan, I Mr. Miller. Hi, Miss Smith. I Mr. Barney. Hi. Okay. Do we have any unfinished business to attend to today, Mr. Court? We don't. All right. Thank you. In that case, can we go ahead and read the first uh application of due business for today in the record? Sure.

We have an application by Christine Wright for Maltese Holdings 24 LLC for property located at 1530 Avenue Southwest bearing official tax map number 1212501 zoned RM1 residential district for special exception pursuant to section 36.2-311 2-311 zoning code of the city of Rona 1979 is amended to permit a group living facility. Thank you. Is the applicant present today? And then could you please approach the podium?

Good afternoon. How are you? Great. Could you state your name and residential address? Christine Wright. Uh 1530 Roar Avenue Southwest. Could you please raise your right hand so I can swear you in? Do you solemnly swear that the testimony that you shall provide today will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. All right. Go ahead and tell us tell the board what your plans are today.

Yes. So, we um I'm the co-founder and executive director of Fortress Recovery. We operate a recovery home out of 1530 Roarer Avenue. Um, as is in the plans, it's a large uh 7bedroom, three bath, threestory home. Uh, nearly 4,000 square ft. Um, and our goal is to increase it from the current 8 capacity, which maxes out the current zoning. Um, to increase that up to 12 um, occupants within the home. Um, it is a women and children's home um, that uh, resides there. And so um a majority of the rooms are shared rooms, two and two women to a room. However, the house manager and family suites for a mom living with her children are individual rooms. So that number can and will fluctuate depending on the applicants as to how many are there at one given time, but we're just looking to increase that capacity to meet the need.

All right. Thank you, Bo. Do we have any questions for the applicant at this time? All right, Mr. Moore, have you received any public comment regarding this application? Yes, we have. And you all should have received um the emails. Um we got I think two items, right? Um two items um that had been uh presented in part public record and they were in public record already. Yes, they'll be Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Okay. And could you go ahead and tell um the board what staff's recommendation is with any conditions?

Sure. Um staff finds the request for a special exception to establish an access accessory um I'm sorry to establish a group living facility at the subject property meets the standards for the granting of a special exception. Staff recommends approval of the special exception with the following condition. Uh the capacity of the group living facility shall be no more than 12 residents, not to include staff members um who reside off. I know there's been some discussion regarding uh the addition of a couple of more uh conditions that we wanted to discuss here among board members. Um would anyone like to kick off that discussion here as far as the concerns that we've discussed? Um I can could we uh ask a couple of other questions first in your mind, Mr. Chairman? Um

I noticed that the uh the owner is Maltese Holding. What's the relationship between Maltese Holding and and the organization? Yes, absolutely. And actually one thing I would like to clarify that just dawned on me, you asked for my residential address or the organization. It would be actually your residential address. So sorry that's I was like, wait a minute. Um, my residential address is 1306 Penley Boulevard, uh, Salem, Virginia. So, I just want to make that clarification. I do not live at the property. Um, back to your question, Mr. Logan. Um, I'm so sorry. Refresh my memory. The relationship between

relationship. Yes. Um, they are a partner. Um, at the time that we were approached about this property, um, it was up for sale and Fort Truth Recovery as a nonprofit did not have that purchase price in our budget. Um, and so they are a community partner who purchased the property and is thus leasing it to us. However, we do have plans um, within the next year. We have a purchase agreement in place with Maltese Holdings that Fort Truce will be purchasing that property and own it outright. See? And uh second question, do you operate other facilities in in the area that are similar to this?

We do. We have three recovery residences. Um two of which are for men and are in the northwest quadrant. Um and this is our one women and children's house in Southwest. So we have a total of three. Yeah, they're all in the city. Correct. Yes. Are those others uh capped at eight?

They are. Um and with their blueprint, that's all they have capacity for. Um they are like four bedroomedroom houses, four to five bedroomedroom houses. Um and they're all capped at eight. One's actually only seven. Um so to lead into uh chairman's comments uh because the change in your classification um is much broader than what is allowed by right. It's conceivable that down the road if if you no longer own the property or it's it's not used for your purpose, um the the future uses could be much much broader than what is allowed in in the classification that you're requesting. Therefore, um some of us had concern that it might be within our best interest and to answer the question of u uh one of the uh public comments we received talking about the neighborhood and so on that we issue this special exception for a period of two years, 24 months. uh where upon we can evaluate how everything is make sure that neighbors aren't you know bringing forth things that we're not aware of and so on uh and at which time you would come back and and we'd consider uh extending that and would you be agreeable?

Oh absolutely. Yeah, we have not received any um um concern or negative feedback from any of the neighbors um within the community. Quite the opposite. We were kind of surprised with our overwhelming welcome that we received as we moved into the property and so we would certainly be understandable and agreeable to that. So just to make to formalize this, you have discussed the increase the request of increase in occupancy with your neighbors with all the neighbors. Correct. Um not all of them. Um some um there um yeah we have not spoke with every neighbor. Yeah.

Did you make effort to discuss with every neighbor or did you try to you just selected certain ones you wanted to discuss this with? No. Those that we had made contact with out in the community, we hadn't gone knocking on doors. So, those that we were able to make contact with in passing, we did that. Um, but we didn't go knocking on anyone's doors. Were we just discussing one additional? No, it was the right.

Uh, and another condition that we were discussing adding um was a requirement of obtaining a certificate of occupancy, but it sounds like it's going to be required anyway, but I think we'd still like to have the the condition put in there. Yeah. Just to clarify that that the CO you have now was issued under different circumstances than what you're proposing. So we're just considering adding a condition that you would go through the CO process again and uh with the 12. Sure. Absolutely. Mr. Moore, can we have that language? Did you were you able to come up with that language for each condition we were discussing?

Yeah. So, I'm going to um recommend the following three conditions um for approval of this application. Um and they will read number one, the capacity of the group living facility shall be no more than 12 residents not to include staff members who reside offsite. Two, a certificate of occupancy for the group living use shall be obtained from the building planning building and development department prior to operation of the group living facility. And three, special exceptions shall expire 24 months from the date of the board's decision to approve the group living facility. Great. Thank you, Mr. Moore. You're agreeable to those three conditions?

Yes, sir. Okay. Excellent. Do we have um other questions right now for staff or for the applicant? Okay. At this time, I'd like to go ahead and open up the public hearing on this application. Miss Clark, do we have anyone scheduled to speak on this today? We don't. Okay. Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this application? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and close the public uh hearing portion of this hearing regarding this application. Um board, do we have a motion to amend the application with the condition proposed by staff and discussed by board?

Mr. Chairman, I move that the uh application be uh subject be made subject to the three conditions that were just uh grant by Mr. Thank you, Mr. Logan. Do we have a second? Thank you, Mr. Hamler. Mr. Clark, we go ahead and take a vote on amending the application with the three conditions. Mr. Garner, I. Mr. Hamler, I. Mr. Logan, hi. Mr. Miller, hi. Miss Smith, hi. Mr. Barney, I Okay, we have an amended application before us. We have a motion to approve the amended application. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Hamler. Mr. Clerk, we go ahead and take the final vote on approving the amended application. Yes, Mr. Garner.

Hi, Mr. Haml. Hi, Mr. Logan. Hi, Mr. Miller. Hi, Miss Smith. Hi, Mr. Barney. Hi. Congratulations on your special exception. Thank you so much. We appreciate the support. Do we have any other items of new business to attend to today? No. Okay. Hearing none. Thank you very much, everyone. Let's adjourn. Hope to see you all at the next hearing. Have a wonderful weekend with your Valentine. Thank you. Um