Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We're delighted to have all you folks with us. We appreciate your comments. Madam Secretary, would you give the electronic notes?

Thank you very much, Dr. Perry. For purposes of establishing a forum, would you please call the roll?

We have minutes from August 4th of 2026. Thank you very much. Move approval. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call the question. We're voting on approval of the minutes from August 4th 2026. Please call the roll.

Thank you very much. Mr. Director, do you have a report?

Thank you very much. Are there continuances or deletions from the dump?

Is there a motion to continue item number two, 2026-189 in the September 1st meeting? Second. Any discussion? VOTING ON CONTINUANCE OF ITEM NUMBER TWO, SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2026. PLEASE CALL THE RULES.

AND THE COUNCIL PERSON FOR CASE NUMBER 2026-187 HAS REQUESTED A CONTINUANCE UNTIL for 30 days.

I think there's a number of issues that are still in discussion with neighborhood groups.

You're welcome. And as you know, it is the ongoing policy of the commission in most instances to honor the request from the council person to continue. This is coming directly from her. I believe we honored that. Thank you, sir. We're voting on a motion to continue item number 2026-187 for 30 days to sub number 15, 2026. Please call the roll.

Now, would you please present the consent agenda?

Thank you, Madam Secretary. And for clarity, the UDC cases are final, so we'll be voting on them rather than referring them.

Are there any questions from members of the commission with respect to the consent agenda? Hearing none, I'm going to open a public hearing and ask if there's any member of the public here or online who wishes to speak to any item on the consent agenda.

Well, we'll close the public hearing back to the commission and ask if there's a motion on the consent agenda. Second. Any discussion? I'll call the question. We're voting approval of the consent agenda as presented. Please call the roll.

And I believe you are going to present this today.

Questions for Ms. Trump from members of the commission.

Is there an anticipated increase in traffic to the building?

Thank you. For the record, we have Robertson with us tonight.

Any other questions for Ms. Trump on the presentation? One second, please. Any other questions? Hearing none, I'll open the public hearing and ask if there's any member of the public who needs to speak in favor of this case.

For the record, would you? identify yourself.

Thank you so much for stopping to go right ahead.

Thank you very much. We appreciate you coming. The member of the public wish to speak in opposition. And I'll close the public hearing, bring it back to the commission. and ask if there's a motion on item number 17, 20 to 26 dash 176, for Woodlawn and Grove Avenue. Is there a motion?

Any discussion? I think this building has, it appears to have about 20 parking spaces dedicated to the building itself. As Trump reports that there's not an anticipated surge demand, and residents can and regularly do in some neighborhoods apply for resident-only parking decals for on-street parking, and I think if there's a challenge, something like that would be appropriate in this case.

Thank you, Mr. White. Anything else? Any further discussion from members of the commission? Moving on, I'll call the question. We're voting on approval of item number 17, 2026-176. Follow the roll.

Thank you very much, Ms. Secretary. Would you present the next item on agenda? I'd love to.

Hearing none, I'll open the public hearing and ask if there's any member of the public who wishes to speak in favor of this case. In favor or? Yes, ma'am. We'll get right there. Anyone online?

If you would come on up to the podium, give us your name. And as I understand it, you're speaking in opposition.

And would you please write down your names on that little?

Are there questions from members of the commission for Ms. Quill?

I'll close the public hearing, bring it back to the commission, and ask if there's a motion on item number 18, 1003, Baywood Court, item 2026-178.

You're the applicant? Oh, I'm sorry. Please come on up.

Any other questions? One of the commenters earlier mentioned the lot for the proposed new duplex was, I think, it was 40 feet wide. Looking at the drawing, it appears to be wider than that. Do you know how the lot itself, the subdivided lot? It's 51 feet as proposed. Looks like 51 feet in the In the rear, but on the front, perhaps larger than that.

All right, we have a motion and a second discussion. Mr.

So we're now going to vote on the amended motion. Take it. There's, you would join the second. Yes. I'll call the question. We're voting on item number 18, 1003 Baywood. Please call the roll.

I'm going to ask if there's any member of the public

Is there any member of the public who wishes to speak in opposition to this case? Anyone online?

But we did have a letter of opposition from the neighborhood association.

Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Delgado from members of the commission?

Back to the commission and ask if there's a motion item 19 3407 Lawson Street, a motion and a second to approve the special use permits.

Mr. Chair, is there any wisdom in considering the possibility of offering an extension to the applicant for him to go and have a more robust engagement with community and come back. It seems to be that that's the one of the big concerns here is that it was a couple of emails and that was to one person and that was it. Perhaps there would be more support. I don't know. Maybe it might be more opposition, but we don't know because there hasn't been enough engagement.

Motion to continue is always in order, even though a motion to deny has already been made. So if that is your motion, I will say, I'll wait to see if there's a second.

Is that your motion? May I ask the applicant if that would be something that he would entertain? Absolutely. Mr. Delgado, would you entertain a continuous?

Motion and a second. Now we have discussion.

Demolitions are touchy, and you probably should have consulted with the neighbors first, but the idea of not throwing away the stuff that was inside, bedbugs and things like that are an issue with abandoned homes, and I think that was probably appropriate.

Well, I made the motion. Thank you. All right. And that motion passes.

hours of operation this business has been operating under? Just regular business hours. The applicant can probably speak to that as well.

That was what I thought. I'm just curious as to why that has been the case.

I think you're going to get a lot of clarity from the applicant.

Would you tell us again what the result was?

Thank you very much. You're welcome. Would the applicant like to speak? I suspect you would.

The answer to the question. Can you speak to the, uh, In reality, their posted hours of operation have been past midnight without a nightclub term.

Okay. But they're, in the meantime, still open until 1.30?

Planning staff, is that consistent with your understanding?

Okay. Ms. Greenfield made a, asked staff a question about the police reports and that there were other neighborhood restaurants and nightclubs. You made mention of one Kismet. That's immediately adjacent.

And the police officer you made reference to, that's in addition to the Five security officers. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll open public hearing and ask if there's any member of the public who wishes to speak in favor of this paper. Anyone online? Anyone who wishes to speak in opposition? Anyone online?

First public hearing. Back to the commission. And ask if there's a motion on this paper.

Could you give us a little, flesh out a little bit of your management program with your security officers and their interrelationship with the police department?

I plan to support this paper. This is an area of the city that is growing and is encouraging entertainment. It helps the growth of the city. We see not a lot of nightclubs here, I don't know that I've seen one that had five security archers plus a police officer. It's probably one of the best management plans that I've seen, and that's why I plan to participate.

Any other comments? I plan to support it as well, and I have major reservations about a lot of nightclub operators, but you don't want to get me started. But this is an area that has not experienced a great many problems from its nightlife, and they seem to have a good management plan in place.

Any further? No call to question. We're voting on approval of item number 20, 2026-174-2900, West Broad Street, for the purpose of a nightclub. He's called the roll.

Questions from the Commission for Mr. Lloyd.

Any further presentation you wish to make other than the rebuttal? Yes. And I'll open the public hearing and ask if there's members of the public that wish to speak in favor of this matter.

Questions for Mr. Turkle from the commission.

Thank you, ma'am. Questions for Ms. Miles from the Commission?

Thank you. Questions from the commission?

Just for clarity. Yes, sir. Mr. Lawry's letter is part of the record.

Thank you. Questions for Ms. Deloy. Yes, ma'am.

Post public hearing, back to the question and asking if there is a motion.

given that disclosure as required by the statute thank you very much i move for approval for the motion of second do we have discussion i i think it is um it's a attractive iconic building that is worth saving it is uh historic and i i I acknowledge the concerns about parking and I can't say that parking will not evolve because of this project, it very well might, but I don't think anybody wants 100 plus thousand square foot building in the middle of a residential neighborhood to go vacant and dark for a generation.

I will say that The timeline of the engagement from this group to the neighborhood is well over approaching two years. The presentation that they've made with respect to their proposal is astoundingly good for an iconic building that's been there since 1931 that we need to preserve in an area of the city that is crying for more density in a manner in which folks different than are being used using the property now. The Virginia home has been a part of the Richmond community for as long as I've known, as long as I've been here. The occupants of that building are significantly different than the

I want to acknowledge as well the concern as it relates to the community and parking and the size of the streets and their concern as it relates to that. I appreciate the study that have been done to address those concerns. hopefully the community will have an opportunity to look at those more closely as well. It's a little painful to see the Virginia Home move to Henrico. I mean, we are in desperate need. We'll continue to provide housing of this choice in the city of Richmond, and I would like to hope that in the future the city will work very hard with with owners of these types of properti

Thank you, Ms. Robertson. Any other comments from members of the Commission?

Item number 2026-183, 1101 Hanson Street and the rest of the addresses.

Thank you very much. Do we have a council action update?

I think it's a wonderful idea. And would that be structured with you making a presentation?

Do you have a preference of the first or the 15th? Because I'm going to recommend that each of the commission members read this wonderful document, make notes, and send questions to the director so he can explain those things to us, either on the first or the 15th. Do you have a preference?

Hangover, what a great word for this. All right, so I would encourage each member to do as much of the study in this as you can, so that we can ask the directors specific questions with respect to any issues that we have with respect to COVID. With that, thank you all very much for your attention and time tonight. Thanks to the members of the staff that's really attended and thank you very much for being here.