Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to call to order this the February the 11th, 2026 meeting of the Montgomery County Planning Commission. Um, Miss Sharp Robinson, would you determine a quorum, please? Yes. Uh, Commissioner Waltz, here. Commissioner Croll here. Commissioner Rice here. Commissioner Miller here. Commissioner Workman here. Commissioner Simkins here. Vice Chair Lincolnis here. Chair Foster here. Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum. I assume the secretary is here. Yes. Okay. I didn't call myself. Am I supposed to? Okay.

Thank you. Next item is approval of the agenda. You have that before you. Are there any corrections, additions? Move approval. Is there a second? Second, Mr. Linkis. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda, the um meeting of the January 14th minutes or the minutes of the January 14th meeting and the phase 3 section 3 flat in Walnut Creek. Is there a motion?

We have a motion made and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. opposed. We have no public hearings tonight and I will go to public address. If there's anyone in the audience that wishes to address the planning commission, now is the time. Seeing none, I will close public address and we will go to item seven, which is a work session. Two work sessions, four work sessions. The hits keep coming. Is there a motion to uh go into work session? So moved.

Thank you. Is there a second? All those in favor? Opposed?

Motion carries. Miss Wright, you're up. Here we go. All right. Our first work session item is a special use permit request for a short-term tourist rental on Harding Road in an existing three-bedroom single family dwelling. Our next slide shows the vicinity map. And the the star on the left is the vicinity and the area in the county in which it's located. And the area in blue is the town of Blackburg limits. And then on the right, you'll see just a zoomed in version of it um on off of Harding Road. And you'll see just how close it is to the town of Blackburg jurisdictional line. Basically right across the road. Here's an aerial map of the property showing in yellow the lot and the parcel that the single family dwelling home is located on. Down below here is Harding Road and I know we've had a few um issues and applications on Rights Way and that is right there in it's the red road indicating that it's private. On the right is the zoning map showing that the parcel is zoned residential R2 which requires special use permit for the use of a short-term rental. That's all I have for that. It's very basic and very um similar to previous requests. If you have any questions that need to be addressed in the staff analys analysis for next month, I will take

those now. Otherwise, we're certifying this for public hearing for next month. There were some questions at the site visit today. Um, if you have those, would you ask them for the record, please? Forgotten your questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. The next item is a request to amend the property conditions on an approved resoning. Yes, thank you. Um,

so this is a request by JJ JJB properties to amend property conditions um as well as res revise approved SUP for many warehouses. Um, this was before you back in uh 2019 and it was approved. So this is um here you can see the vicinity map. It is almost exactly the same as Kim's proposal prior. Um just I think two properties down on Harding Road. Um here you can see the aerial map of of the three subject properties in question. And here um so the the big thing about this uh hearing is it's basically just um they're requesting slight amendments to their concept plan and that requires a um an amendment to the proper conditions as well as um the the SU that was actually approved had a condition in it that said if um the applicant were to come back and want to build um a future building that was laid out on the on the previous master plan that they would have to come back for the approval of that building. So that's why we're here for that as well. Um here you have the proposed revisions and then the approved master plan. um I can walk you through there um exactly what all is going to be changing. So starting out, let's start with the mini warehouse facility here to the right. Um so you can see out front that they are um modifying the parking. They're going to be adding a little bit. Um and they're also going to be adding um some gravel parking in order to allow for RVs, cars, boats, trailers, that kind of thing. Um and then they also are adding some in the back here as well. Um additionally they are removing one of the access um points uh to um Juul Boulevard um just to kind of minimize

the amount of in-n-out traffic. Let's see. Um I believe that is all the changes for that in a nutshell. And then also um the area to the left which is behind the bug shop. They are actually proposing um an area to be a building to be used as a property management facility. So this will be the property owners um property management company. Uh right now they're thinking that there will be offices up top and there'll be storage down below um for building materials and things like that for maintaining their their properties. Um, and then the only other thing that's really changing is you have the culde-sac right here and they are changing it to a T turnaround and this is uh because they are potentially planning on starting to develop some of the R2 property in the back. Other than that, that's all that's really changing.

Are there any questions of Mr. Cochran? I will also note that um there was a question during um the site visit about this house to the left here. Um that is owned by the same owner, property owner um and it is a rental property, so there are tenants that will be living there. Mr. Chair, just curious about the proposed building on the um the new site plan. Is that a um storage building as well or is there some other use for that? It is. So, it is a storage building in the back.

And is there a requirement for that additional parking for the RVs and boats to be paved or is does that meet all of our site development requirements?

So, there is a requirement for one one spot per 25 um rental units. Um but in the past we have allowed for actual storage of people's RVs, buses and things like that we have allowed it to be gravel. So the parking for the business itself for customers coming and going has to be paved but any storage will be uh gravel. Now there's none shown here but we're working on that. The the plan that you see um that'll be in the staff analysis will be updated from this. We we only had a meet we had a meeting with um the engineer yesterday, so we're still working on a few changes that need to be made.

Okay. And I guess we can get into this when uh we go through the the actual plan review, but I was just curious about the building material storage you mentioned in the lower level of the office building. I that seems unique. Well, so it's it's more or less just an accessory use for that property management facility. So, they're going to have offices upstairs for property managers or agents or whatever. Um, and then down below would be, you know, their service guys that maintain the actual properties that they rent. So, it'll be like, you know, spare supplies, materials. So, like, you know, say they have a pipe burst in one of their units, maybe they have some tools or something that they would, you know, access down there and then take to their property. So, it's all going to be indoors.

Yes. And just things that they could carry in and out, right, without a fork truck or something like that. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Mr. Cochran. Um, it's been a few years. Could you remind me what kind of visual barriers there are, if any, around these storage units? Um, so I can't remember what type buffer yard would be required off the top of my head. I think it's is it a four? Um, so it is a type four buffer yard. Um, so that would all be um reviewed during the site plan process. Thank you. Yep. Are there any other questions of Mr. Cochran?

Lighting. Do they have to do night sky. Okay.

I don't believe there's any proposed at this time. When we bring this back to you two, um we'll include a copy of the conditions that are on the special use permit and the profered conditions highlighting anything that changed. Um, so a lot of those conditions do address things like lighting, um, the buffer yard because the type four buffer yard is our most intense buffer yard and it does require that opaque screen. Um, either fencing and or evergreens, combination of both. Um, so all of that will be included in the full packet. We just wanted to bring this forth so that way if you had any concerns or questions um we could get that on the owner and the agents radar so they could address that prior to public hearing

question it is I know we're talking about this okay I'm looking forward because they're looking forward right so they're going to want to develop further out is what it sounds like. More of the same. Is that their intent? And is there a max like I don't know how big their property line is. I'm just curious. So the um the property behind where the cul-de-sac is is around 12 acres and that's all zoned R2. That all that's all going to be single family dwellings. Okay. So commercialwise this is as far as it that is it. Okay. When you said development I wasn't sure what they Okay.

Thank you. Y are there other questions? Thank you, sir. Absolutely.

The next item is uh discussion of the comprehensive plan draft. Mr. Sanders, you're just getting a parade of staff this evening, aren't you? Um well, good evening. It's good to be with you all again. Uh it's hard to believe that it was almost 2 years ago that we announced that we were kicking off the McGomery Matters process, but here we are. Um and you have before you a final draft of the document. Um we have gone through this with you with a couple of different work sessions. I wanted to just quickly summarize um what you received in your packet that may have been a bit different than the two work sessions that we held with you. Um, as we had mentioned, we were finalizing uh the action steps uh through a last community survey. That survey closed and you have all of the action items included in the various chapters. You also have a some overarching actions in the beginning of each part that are sort of crosscutting across different chapters. And then there's a vision list uh in each chapter as well talking about action items that we're going to be looking at in the longer term. Um so that's going to be in the 10 to 20 year range. Um we have held work sessions with the board of supervisors and gotten their comments. Um we have as staff gone through the document several times. Um we are going to give it one more once over integrating in the board of supervisors feedback. any feedback you all have this evening. Um, and before we post that online at the mcgomery matters.com website for the citizens to be able to review the document uh before we do public hearings in March. Um, our plan as of now is to bring uh the document forward for public hearing with you and the commission on March the 11th and with the board of supervisors at their

second March meeting. Um depending upon the feedback that we receive from the citizens, we may have some additional revisions that will need to be done. But our goal is for the board of supervisors uh to adopt McGomery Matters in their at their April meet, one of their April meetings. Um and then we will continue our work on the village plans and the future land use map. And our goal is to have the entire process completed this fiscal year, so by June 30th. Um again, you've seen our work session presentations, you've had a chance to sit with the document for some time. So really, we just wanted to give you this opportunity. We can go through the document and and answer any questions that you have or if you have any written comments, we would uh want to receive those from you uh hopefully this week or early next week so that we can make sure we get everything integrated in before that public document is put on the website. So I'll take any questions or comments at this time. Uh Justin, the the land use map, I think it's on page 45. Is there a way we can get that blown up or or um so the future land use map will be done in the next component? Um the reason that we don't have a full-size map for you at this point is part of that village planning is going to be looking at the boundaries of the villages. Um and so we don't have those finalized yet. So the future land use map is not going to be finalized until the next iteration that we'll look at in probably May with you.

Um but generally speaking um the the way the future land use map is going to be structured um we have the two growth areas that have been defined um as midcounties. So that's the area between the town of Christensburg and Blackburg along 460 business. We have the uh Bethl growth area that's along the 177 corridor uh basically ranging from Curillian New Valley Medical Center to the city of Radford city line. Um and then we will have the four villages uh that are remaining as full villages and that's Prices Fork, Riner, Shaw, and Ellist Lefayet. And then Belleview and Plum Creek will be categorized as rural villages. Um we're still working to finalize um some growth area information around the town of Christensburg, particularly the Peppers Ferry corridor. Um we know that we have infrastructure that exists there. It hasn't it hasn't been designated as a growth area. U currently we refer to that as urban expansion. Um so we're looking still at how we're going to handle that area in the future land use map. Um and then um much of the resource stewardship area in the current comprehensive plan um that's where we're looking at the land use of conservation um and we're looking at some other um boundaries as we go through the future land use map process. So we don't have a final future land use map at this point. Just to add to that, I had a concern with that as well because like to me the 114 corridor seems reasonable for growth area and and we've approved you know subdivisions there. So that's something just my comments from the last meeting

and we did have uh quite a bit of feedback from the citizens uh along uh 114 particularly near the town of Christiansburg boundary. So that's why we haven't excluded that area for growth. um it just would not be at the same level as the growth areas in Mid County and then down at Bethl because we didn't get the consensus from the citizens that they wanted that to be the primary area of growth for the county.

Would wouldn't it be reasonable to think though that uh people that live in that area, they would be the ones to say, "Well, we don't want growth here. We want it over there." So what we found and when again we did this growth exercise at all of our countywide meetings but also at our village level meetings um and to be honest we didn't get a huge response of individuals from the 114 corridor. We didn't get a large response of people in the Belleview Village. Um so we weren't getting a lot of people from that area contributing at all about whether they wanted to see growth there or not. Um we did however get in the village areas and in those growth areas that are being proposed a pretty good consensus that folks wanted that to be the focus of the growth. Um the other component of that is we also have to look at where we have existing infrastructure as I mentioned and we do have infrastructure in that corridor. So, we want to be sensitive to the fact that investment has already been made in infrastructure in that area, but we also are being responsive to what we heard from the citizens throughout the last 18 months, and that's that they wanted to see very limited growth in that corridor. Well, it it just seemed that when we talk about putting growth where we have the infrastructure, looks like there's a lot of land that surrounds the town of Christiansburg that could be accessed if we're looking at the next 20 years or so. So the challenge that we face with land in and around the town of Christensburg is that that is completely dependent on the town of Christensburg infrastructure system. So you look at Hinsen's road for an example in the Walnut Creek subdivision. We have residents that are connected to the town of Christensburg system there and they are paying a 200% premium to be part of that network. And so that's something that we heard from citizens that are on those borders of Christensburg that they did want to see growth and it made sense to have growth that was compatible with what we were seeing in the town, but they wanted the

infrastructure to be the county's infrastructure. And so that's the balancing act that we're trying to to put there. We don't want to continue to put more growth that's going to impact the town of Christensburg and their water and sewer system. um but realizing where the citizens have wanted us to prioritize growth again are in those two growth areas in the villages. So that's that's kind of why we've moved in that direction with the future land use map recommendations.

So let's say 10 years from now Christiansburg and McGomery County gets together and they say well you know we we really would like some growth here in this area close to town and so they come up with a political agreement or something. Then what would we do? We'd have to go back and amend the comprehensive plan. So we are required by state code to look at the comprehensive plan every 5 years. That's the state code mandate. What we also have built in with uh the draft of McGomery Matters is a yearly maintenance tool, our tracking tool where as we see maybe that political will changing, we can either look at that on a yearly basis and start planning for that or on those five-year increments. That would be the opportunity for the planning commission and the board to adjust the future land use map. Mr. Sanders.

Yes, sir. Return to um one of Mr. Rice's questions. Is it fair to assume that um most of the anticipated growth in Mid County and Bethl would be commercial and 114 would be residential?

I I don't believe that's true. What we saw from the citizens was a desire for in all of our growth areas to be taking a mixeduse approach. So that's going to be usually the way we accomplish that is through pudres or pud commercial districts. Um when we've been looking at uh the the public input that we've been doing, we we're actually looking at the form level as well. So architectural examples of what folks wanted to see within the growth areas and in the villages. What we heard for the villages was that residents primarily wanted to see us do um infill development. They wanted to see restoration, renovation, and utilization of the land and the buildings that are already within the villages. In the growth areas, folks really wanted to see a mixeduse development that was going to have commercial and residential components. I think in mid county because of the proximity to Lewis Gale, because of the proximity to Blackburg, I think the growth that we would see in that area would be a mix of residential and commercial. Um, down in 177 in Bethl, again, proximity to Curillion Valley Medical Center in the city of Radford. That development in that area has historically been commercial, but we see a mixture again of residential and commercial. And there's already some approved resonings in that corridor that have that mixeduse approach. I'm thinking particularly uh there across from the Meta Creek intersection. Um there's an approved resoning and a concept plan that has uh commercial and office uses on the front part of the parcel. Uh but then some residential behind. I would imagine that's the sort of growth that you would see in that area. But again, all of that's going to be contingent upon how we do the zoning ordinance and what the zoning overlay in those areas are. So, we really will have an opportunity through zoning to set that standard for what's going to happen in those two growth areas.

Thank you. Are there other comments or questions?

I'll just make one more comment. It just it seemed like um the u the Marramac the um that area the topography there is kind of kind of hard for residential use and and even this um Bethl area down the 177 corridor. You know, I'm thinking about the the available land there. You know, the topography is kind of rough and I I don't know if we're going to be able to put all the growth that we need in those locations. That's why I'm thinking we might need to be looking at some other areas or or or at least have the ability to expand, you know, when the opportunity.

So, sort of in that vein of what I was discussing with the zoning, I think what we're going to have to be very careful and conscious of uh in both of those growth areas is we're going to have to do much more dense development in those areas to be able to see that level of growth. And again, that's going to rely very heavily on future infrastructure investments that we make there. Um, currently, as an example, our most dense uh residential district is our RM1 zoning district. Um, that has a maximum density of 12 units per acre. Um, when we have had prospects that have been looking at doing development in Midount, they're looking at a 16, 18, 20 unit per acre density. Um, and so when we are looking at the zoning ordinance, I think to your point, Mr. Rice, there are going to be some topographical challenges in those areas. Um, but historically the easy land in the county is already developed. So, we're going to have to get really creative with how we can meet our housing needs, meet our need for new commercial space. We're going to be looking that as well in terms of industrial uses. We don't have a lot of industrially zoned land in the county. And what we're hearing and what you see reflected in the goals from economic development is they're wanting more industrial land. So, a lot of this is going to come down to the zoning map that's determined as we do the zoning ordinance update, increasing densities, looking at lot sizes. Um, there's going to be various components to make sure that the growth and development that the citizens have asked for in those areas is going to be able to be done by developers. Any other comments?

Would you convey to your compatriots and to yourself our appreciation for your time and efforts? Absolutely. And and my goal uh during the public hearing next month um there have been a lot of folks that have been involved in this process. our entire staff, our consulting team, our citizen steering committee, our stakeholders, county departments. Um, and instead of again talking at you about every single chapter, um, as we go forward through public hearing, um, I'm going to be making sure that those individuals are all recognized next month, um, so you'll get an opportunity, I hope, to thank them yourself at that point, too. Thank you. Thank you all.

Miss Hopkins, could you chat with us about open gov, please? I can. The parade of staff continues. Um, our goal tonight was to see how many different staff members you could hear from. So, here we are. Um, so before I get into a demonstration, I've pulled up the site. I'm going to walk through it with you. I had originally planned to walk through it as if I was a citizen. Um, but I've been told by our IT department that means I have to create a permit. And creating a permit in the live system, then I have to do something with it. and I really don't want to get a permit in Montgomery County. So, um I'm going to show you what it looks like from the citizen side and then when I show you the back side, it it is truly the back side, but it still shows you everything that a citizen sees and and what they go through, but you can also see um the the hidden things that we see and our hidden reviews and and things like that. Um I want to start with a little bit of background. So you all may remember several years ago precoid 2018 um we went to a software system called GovSense um that was our first attempt of bringing a couple of departments together. Um it was going to bring together the building department and planning department um so we would at least all be able to see each other's information in the same system. Um, we had some forward progressing visions for that software that did not come to fruition. Um, we had anticipated having a citizen portal where people could apply for their permits online. Um, we did not ever get that going through GovSense. Um, and it was very clear that um, their software could not meet the needs that that we had moving forward. Um so with some help we started looking at an asset management system as well for another part of the county. Um currently our facilities do not have anything managing their assets. Um so we started looking

at that system and then it kind of got incorporated into an enterprise system. Hey well all of these folks seem to do land development planning too. Maybe we could get one system and have an enterprise to do it all. And um that is I I will tell you I was against that at first and said no because that's what we went with with GovSense and we've seen that that doesn't work because they are financial and so we thought you know you could put it together. Um I want something that's just for land development. Um these folks have proved me wrong. Um, so we started in June, July talking to Open Gov and um, they come through and said, "Hey, we think we can have you live before you have to pay your next round of maintenance fees." Well, those were due January 9th. Um, so we're talking end of July, beginning of August when we had this discussion. Um when we started GovSense, we started that in 2018 and it was never completed. So when we abandoned the system in January, we still had not developed everything that had been in the RFP or in the works. Um the main part of the system took 2 years to develop. We did not go live until November of 2020. Um so when they said they could have us live in four months, um me and one of the IT guys were like, "Yeah, right. Um this isn't going to happen." Um and so we we were kind of saying we'll just see what happens. We'll see. Well guys, we were live January 2nd um when we opened and we actually went live in mid December internally for our staff. Um so our staff started inputting permits um middle of December before even Christmas break. Um it is a very easy system. If you've ever been through our permitting process, you will know that the permitting process looks something

like this. I need a permit. I'm going to build a new house. It's on private well and septic. So, first place I go is to the building department because I need a building permit. And they say, "No, you have to go to zoning." So, they come upstairs physically walk upstairs and say, "I need a zone. I need something from zoning because I need a building permit. I'm building a new house." Okay. Well, are you on public water and sewer? No. No. have well and septic. Okay, well now you have to go to the health department, but wait a second, you need this form. So we would give them a form, send them to the health department, which by the way wasn't even in the same building that's down the street. Um, so they would go down to Pepper Street and then they would call me and say, "They told me it's going to be six to eight weeks." Yes, ma'am. That's that's the state health department. You'll have to go through them. They'll give you a construction permit and then you can come back, but you have to come back to zoning, don't go to building. So they would come back into the zoning department, give me their septic construction permit, a site plan, whatever else we needed. We would hand them a piece of paper, take their $30, and then say, "Now you have to go downstairs and apply for your building permit." So they would go downstairs, apply for their building permit, turn in some of the same stuff they had already given to me in our department and apply for their building permit, and then guess what? We had to review it through zoning to make sure it matched what we had just approved up for their zoning permit. So zoning has now looked at it three different times.

You forgot you've got VOTE with the entrance.

Forgot VOTE with the entrance permit. Yes, they had to go to VOTE and get an entrance permit and all that chaos, too. Um, so we're talking a lot of back and forth. So, um, that was one of the things that we wanted to resolve. We wanted a customer portal and we wanted to find a way to make the process for our citizens easier because that's what we're here to do is serve as the citizens of Montgomery County. Um, and that's a big goal of my department. So we introduce open gov and so now our citizens will come to this page and how may we help and this is where they can access information. Um they can go here to permitting and you can see they can do a building permit. Um you have to create a login and sign in. Um once you do that then you can you have an account. So, if I have a building permit, let's say I have a building permit for a house today and now I have an account and I want to come back 6 months later and get one for a garage. Well, I don't have to do another account. I'm already in the system and it it pulls my stuff in. Um, so they're going to come in to their permit and they're going to fill everything out one time. So, this does everything. Um, I also forgot to mention land disturbances in there. So, when you apply for single family dwelling, land disturbance has to review it. And then sometimes they had those comments. So now when you come in, you can applicant can be the contractor. You're going to fill in your dwelling type. This is an internal field. So anytime you see these shaded fields, they are internal. Um but this will tell us if it's in a flood zone so we know if we need to look for something. It also creates an attachment that is required on the applicant side for a flood elevation certificate. So they have to submit that with their record or they have to call us and have us fix it because we want to make sure they're not building in that flood zone. We do get audited by FEMA. So that is very important. Um property owner information. This comes over on GIS and

we went back and forth with this some. We do still have them add this here because a lot of times I might be the property owner but I just bought the property two days ago. So, it's still listed in the other person's name through the Commissioner of Revenues office and therefore through our GIS. Um, so this just allows us to verify the property owner, um, mechanics lean agent, your contractor information, and again, this is all seen by the applicant. Um, and then you get into your building and zoning. And a lot of this is building stuff, so I'm not going to pretend to know it. Um, but there's a lot of things in here. Your property and zoning information. These autopop populate based on the zoning district that is populated through our GIS system. So this tells them upfront where they have to be located. And then if the dwelling is within 5 ft of the setback requirement, it also creates a document that is required for an asbuilt. So if you were building within 5 foot of your setback, we do require an asbuilt to ensure that you're meeting your setback requirements. Um so it automatically populates that. what that looked like before we had to look at the site plan. Oh, you're within five feet. So then we had to go put a note in the system that said, "Hey, before you issue a CO, we need to see this as built." And then we had to rely on someone downstairs to follow up to look to see that that was required and then to let us know that it was there. So now as soon as they attach that asbuilt, which they can do as soon as they have the footers in, we get a notice that says there's a new attachment. there's an asbuilt there. We can go look at it and go ahead and sign off and then zoning is not holding anything up even in the final. So, this is their erosion and sediment control screening forms. Um, this was built by the county engineer and her staff. And then there's all your building information. This information for manufactured housing only populates if you're doing a

manufactured home. So, not every applicant sees this. It's based on the selections that they make up at the top. Um, so all of this is conditioned and you can see water and sewer information. So this is something else that's important. Um, PSA previously never reviewed our permits. If it was on public water and sewer, one of the our required documents was a receipt that they had paid their connection fees. And then sometimes it was just by sheer luck that they went and talked to the utility department to know what size lines they needed to install. Those type of things. This ensures that utilities has their eyes on it from the very beginning to ensure things are installed correctly on site. Um and also to let the owners know what's expected of them when they come out to do their inspections. Of course, our acknowledgement. And then everything else is for internal staff. So this is where we do all of our reviews. um make any comments and all of that fun stuff. We also have attachments. As you can see, a lot of these are required. Um private well and septic is required, but you can see it's conditioned. This only populates if the sewer system is in use septic. Um flood plane elevation only if it's in the flood zone. Entry permit from VOTE as Mr. Rice referred to. Um and then some things for the building department as well, their trust package and their manual J. So they cannot submit their application until all the required documents um are uploaded to the system. And that's a very easy process. It's just upload, it comes right in. Um once they have submitted everything, that's when our work begins. And so we have a whole workflow of things. Um so we do an intake approval that is handled by our building department downstairs. They basically make sure everything is attached that's required. They look to

make sure we don't have pictures of dogs and cats. We actually have a site development plan and those type of things. Um and then GIS reviews it to see if there needs to be an address. These are all automatic. So once you mark one of the gray boxes and once it has all green checks, it goes on to the next. Um it automatically charges our permit fees. Um, so that way we are no longer sending emails that say, "Hey, this is what you owe." And that's very vital. Um, right now we currently have, um, some emails going out nationwide through planning departments. Um, we've had several here in Montgomery County already. I've gotten five this week. Um, people are going to our website and seeing, "Oh, this person has a special use permit." They're going into their application and then sending them an email saying that they owe Montgomery County money and you need to wire it through this link. Um, luckily, thank goodness, our development firms are catching it and we're letting our private citizens know when they apply. Do not reply to anything like that. Give us a call. Um, now we're going to put out a notice on Open Gov that they'll get when they submit their application that says all payments will be through this system. We will not send you a link. um just to make sure that doesn't happen. But that is a nationwide planning department attack. Um it was actually featured in the APA news journal just two weeks ago, I guess. Um so you can see here they can pay all their permit fees at one time. So they don't have to bring us a receipt for sewer anymore, water, all that is paid for here. And then we we get automatic notice. Um so it saves them more uploading. We all review it. um issue whatever permits and then the inspections begin. This is really nice. They call into the inspections department. They tell our inspectors, "Hey, we need an inspection." Amanda gets them on the schedule. Our

inspectors go out. As soon as that inspection is completed, they get a notice right here on their on their application. So, they know whether that inspection passed or failed. If it failed, they can go into it. They can see the pictures taken. They can see the correction report. anything like that before. What that involved was the inspectors would go out, inspect it, mark everything on the computer system, come back into the office, and then the admin assistant downstairs would send that information out to the contractors. So, it's eliminated that entire step completely. Um, so it is a much more efficient system. We're not just using this for permits. Um, we're also using it for our resonings and special use permits. Um, this is the reasonzoning one. I did not build this one. I will say the one thing I'm really impressed with the system and and Kim can attest to this because she was on the development team. Um, it is very easy to build. Um, so I have built four applications, five applications now maybe um in the system. our major subdivisions, subdivisions, special use permits, and then um the zoning permit application process. Um they are very easy to build. The other thing that we really like is we sat down as a team the other day and said, "Okay, what's our process look like now?" Like we know what the process look like when it was a piece of paper and it was scanned and we got it by PDF, but what's it look like now that the citizen is doing this? And a lot of my staff are saying, "Hey, that's that's not going to work. like we got to know this ahead of time. I was able to immediately change things, change workflow, and it applies from there on out. Um, so you can change things in real time. But, um, you can see here, this is where they can enter in their general information. A lot of times we do have contract purchasers when it's a reszoning or a special use permit. Their approve their approval for

their request um, will decide whether or not they purchase the property. So, the the buying of the property is contingent. Um, so we do collect that information, the development information. And then, um, if you go on down through here, owner's consent, they sign here. We also have a form that they have to fill out and upload. And that's the form that goes to the attorney to verify that we're getting the correct signatures, especially if it's an LLC. Um, down here, you'll see we have an assigned planner. We will put in our legal description here and that's that we call it the blurb that you tend to see on all the legal notices, the adjoining property owner notices. It's normally on your agenda. Um that blurb actually gets put into a document. We are no longer creating our legal ads. So, we are filling out these forms and the dates of your meetings which are down here and that populates the legal ad and all Amanda has to do is hit a button to send it to the newspaper um after the county attorney reviews it. But it's a hit of a button now versus us opening up Word, creating the legal ad, attaching it to a record, Amanda sends it to the attorney, and then she t sends it to the paper. It's much more automatic. Applicant owner notices automatically go out. We key in these dates, hit a button, and it automatically gets emailed to the applicant owner. Same with adjoining property owner notices. It automatically created. We just have to print them off and mail them. Um, so that is going to save a ton of staff time and is very beneficial. Um, I can go into one of these just to show you. Um, feel like I'm looking at this wrong.

Where is my department? Kim, where's my department?

Oh, I think this is blocking it. Never mind. It's that blurb we've been getting. Um, so we have one in here. It's the one you've actually um just talked about tonight. I think Gretchen has left for the reasonzoning. Um, so you'll see we've completed these steps. And then um what is really nice is if I go down here, I should have went to do the applicant owner notice. So you'll see this automatically generated this information. Of course, we don't have a board date to generate yet because that's always to be determined. We do that after work session. So once work session is done tonight, we'll fill in that last little bit and it'll generate that. So that is an overview of the system. Um we are much more user friendly in our opinion. We are also using this for development review. So when you submit a site plan goes through a very similar process. Um a lot easier. Shelley is not having to manage these quite as much because we all get notices immediately versus she would get the plan in. She would have to attach it. She would open it in Blue Beam. She would send it out. She tracks everyone's comments. They have to drop them into a folder. Then she has to go find them. Now they'll just put them all here in the system and they'll be in one location. So, and the good news is too, if I'm an applicant and I have submitted a site plan or even this, I can log into my portal and see exactly where in the step I am. Um, the one thing, so we had a meeting yesterday and we were talking about things that were going well. Um, one of the things that's going well is we can send a note. For instance, I can say on this, Gretchen, I need you to revise your plan and submit it. um she they are responding immediately because they get it immediately versus us having to send an email or a letter or type it up. We

can just say, "Hey, there's some comments, you know, on your site plan. Can you take a look at those and resubmit?" And it's coming back in a lot quicker. Um they'll be able to see comments from our developers if they put them into the system. Um they'll be able to see those and go ahead and start making changes. They just can't resubmit until they've received all comments. So, it's going to be beneficial for all of our citizens. We're excited. It has been a wonderful opportunity for our departments to work even closer and now we've brought engineering into the firm with um into the to the mix with land disturbance and erosion and sediment control. So, um it's been very beneficial. We just wanted to give you guys a brief overview.

That's all I have. Other questions of Miss Hopkins? I have two. Yes. Um if someone is old school and doesn't want to do this, is that an option to not?

It is. Um so we we do have some paper copies um that they can still submit to us PDF and we'll we'll fill it all in. Um if you come into the office and need us to walk you through it, we will. Um, I mean, we're here, we understand we have a wide range of citizens and so we're here to serve however we can. Um, we can easily create a record from from our side of the system and key everything in. And we've actually been doing that a couple of times because we have some people that aren't as familiar with technology.

Okay. And and then my follow-up question is if a contractor wants to see your permit, can they have access to it? only if they are added to that permit. So, there is a way um I actually just did this for Gretchen. Um she keyed in her resoning and I noticed that she hadn't added the owners to it. So, I added them to it. It goes in as a guest and basically what happens is that guest gets all the notices she gets and can see everything throughout the entire process too. So, the homeowner, whoever applied for the permit would have to add that contractor as a guest. Um, we are only doing that on our side, reszonings and special use permits if those people are listed on the application. Um, that's the only time we are adding them. So, if they come in for a permit, and then you call me up and say, "Hey, I'm the contractor on this job. I need you to add it." My my response is, I need you to go back to John Smith and tell him to add you to his application because we don't want people falsely added to applications. um because those people can also do things like request inspections and upload documents or that type of thing. So, we don't want people that shouldn't have access to edit to be able to have access.

So, do you do some type of photo ID? I mean, I'm not We do not. You don't. So, it really So, as long as I create the account and I know my password and I don't share it with anybody else, then we assume it's just me. Okay. Correct. Correct. Now, the public will be able to see some information um for reasonzonings and special use permits. That's public information. So, we have to put all that out. For building permits, um I don't think the attachments are visible, but like they can see that there's a building permit on 123 West Main Street. Um so, they can see that there's a permit there for a single family dwelling.

Um but they're not going to have like the major attachment details and those type of things. All right. A followup that made me think is at what point is it um voyable? Is it any point in the process that if it's public in your files it's someone do they have to do a foyer request to get it or will they be able to see see what they want to see?

They'll be able to see what they want to see especially for reasonzonings and special use permits they can see the full application materials. Um norm normally we get into FOYA when they want let's say I want all the permits and resonings and special use per I want any activity on this property. Um that's when they need to probably go through the foyer process because we need to look at it. Um and it's multiple departments that could be involved. Um but for the most part any anything that we've put out there like if they've pulled a permit and it's active then they'll be able to see it once we archive it. I don't know if it still comes up. For reasonzonings and special use permits, it will because those are are for life. We can never get rid of those records. Um, but for building permits, they can purge all records. And I don't want to mess this up. I don't know if it's five or seven years, but they can purge everything but the CO. They have to keep that.

Sounds like a great improvement on your processes. And it has been. We are. We are very proud. Um, I am very glad that they didn't listen to me when I said we cannot do this in four months, but um because it's it's been a great improvement already. Good. Thank you, Miss Hopkins. Yes. I imagine there's certain variability in each application. Yes.

But have you tried to estimate about how much time you're saving for the department and for the applicant? um not yet because we're just in over a month and we're still doing those fine-tuning changes on the back side. The good news is um I am able to pull my key performance indicators out of here and um so that is my goal. Mark McGrder is very happy with me on the budget side because I keep saying I can't pull KPIs. I don't have a way to. Well, I don't have that excuse anymore. So now I'm going to have to pull KPIs for Mark. Um but we'll be able to see what that time is. it'll be harder to tell what the time saving is on the applicants because you don't you don't really know what they're doing behind the scenes other than all the running around um because they still have to upload everything. So, you know, I don't know if it's taken them 3 days, maybe they're not as technology inclined and it's taken them three days to put everything in the system or, you know, if it's something that they're doing in just a matter of five minutes because they've they've done it before. Um, the other benefit with this system that I did not mention, Blackburg also has Open Gov. Um, we actually sent some staff in our building department to go there to look before we purchase the system. And so if I am a contractor and I do business in both Blackburg and Montgomery County, I do not have to have a separate account. Um, so my account works in open gov whether I go to the Montgomery County site or the town of Blackburg site. Good.

Yeah, very beneficial. Thank you. Thank you.

We have no whole business tonight. We have two items of new business. And uh the first item is a resolution. And because I am so tall, I'm not going to stand up to read this because I would be too far away from the microphone. So, if you will indulge me, I will read it from here. It's a resolution of appreciation and whereas Mr. Brian Rice has provided dedicated and distinguished service to the people of Montgomery County as a member of the McGomery County Planning Commission since 2014. And whereas Mr. Rice has provided steadfast leadership while serving most recently as vice chairman 2022 to 2024 and chairman 2024 to 2026 of the planning commission. And whereas Mr. Rice's role as chairman of the commission concluded on December the 31st, 2025. Whereas Mr. Rice's commitment to better planning is further evidenced by his service as liaison to the Christiansburg planning commission, the agricultural and forestal district advisory committee and as the liaison to the Montgomery Matters steering committee. And whereas the wise council of Mr. Price has always been rooted in his commitment to the betterment of Montgomery County and the service of its citizens. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Montgomery County Planning Commission

hereby expresses its appreciation to Mr. Rice for his outstanding leadership of the planning commission and his service to the people of Montgomery County. presented this the 11th day of February, 2026. Well, thank you.

Yeah, I've enjoyed every minute. Thank you very much. Every minute.

Each and every one. The second item of new business is the 2026 work program. Miss Hopkins. Yes, I decided I needed to sit down. So, I come back up here. Um, no, I can I can run this from up here. So, um, before we get into 2026, I want to talk about 2025. Um, it's always good to see where we we were and how far we've come. And I just noticed I did not put that number in there. Um, so we engaged over a thousand citizens for Montgomery Matters. um visited six village areas and drafted plan goals, objectives. Justin's talked to you a lot about it the last few meetings and um we are well on our way to adoption. So this was a huge accomplishment in 2025 um for everyone planning commission and for the entire staff um they have done a wonderful job and and have moved forward. Um, transportation planning, we have updated the transportation plan. Um, you have seen part of that. It is getting ready to go back to VOTE with Montgomery Matters. Um, just to make sure everything's still in good shape. Um, we did remove funded projects. That is the biggest thing I that tickles me um to no end. We like it when we get money from VOTE. Um we also worked with VOTE County Administration and a consultant Ardura um and we added two roads to the state network um as a rural edition program and that is Evergreen Trail and Buck Mountain Ridge. Those are in Brush Mountain Estates. Um so that subdivision was started pre-brie is what we call it. So that means a long time ago. Um and those two roads were never developed and taken over by the state. So, we would get calls and thank goodness it happened before this last

round of weather. Um, because we would get calls sometimes daily that their road hadn't been scraped. Why wasn't their road scraped? Why wasn't VOTE taking care of it? We would explain that it was private, it had not been taken over yet, that it was the developer's responsibility. Well, he hightailed it out of town. Um, so that there was that whole narrative going on. So, we realized that it had been 20 years um over 20 years since those roads were built and we talked to VOTE and we worked out a way to get those roads taken into the state system through a rule addition program. Um so th that is a huge accomplishment um that we are very excited about because it helps those citizens. They're now getting service. Um we've replaced their road signs. They're green, not white anymore. So they're they're happy about that. Um we've also been working with VOTE on the Opal Lane rule edition and that is progressing. We're hoping to wrap that up this year. Um we've added transportation projects to the CIP. That was another huge um development. So in the past we did not have those included in our capital improvements program and that actually prevented us from applying for some of the funding through the state. So the state says you have to have these in your CIP before we'll consider it. Um so that was taken care of in 2025. Um we've continued to support the housing trust committees. We attended the HA governor's housing conference. It is the first time members of staff attended that. Um it was very beneficial. There was a lot of talk um surrounding affordable attainable housing. Um and then just how to get housing in general um and the different types of housing. So and some strategies. and Justin and I took a lot back from that. Um, we were also joined by Miss Heel and um, Supervisor Deontz

as an award was given to Taylor Hollow Construction who built the old Prices Fork Elementary School and the second phase of those apartment units. So, they actually received an award for that project and um, Angie and and Supervisor Deont were able to join us for that. Um, we did hold the regional planning commissioners training which is also coming up again shortly. And um, we had two text amendments, nothing major updates required from the 2025 general assembly legislation. I do expect there to be several of those this go around. Um we will probably do a legislation update once we know what's going to happen and then um we will be working at some on some text um to fix some of that legislation language and and determine how we're going to deal with it here in the county. Some of the bills that we're seeing going through appeared like they're going to be effective around September 1. Um so it's going to be a crunch time for those I do believe. Um, we also did an update to allow the zoning compliance officer the authority to act on behalf of the zoning administrator so she can sign those notices of violation and represent the county in court. So, what do we have coming up in 2026? Um, we are definitely going to adopt Montgomery Matters. That's the big news. Um, and then we're going to finalize and adopt the village and growth area plans um with our consultant. We are looking to identify new or alternative funding sources for our priority projects because smart scale cannot be our only answer and that is becoming very clear. Um we are also looking to complete round seven of smart scale which by the way is happening now. Um so we are now in pre-application. We will be submitting three applications. One will be for the intersection of M intersection of Mary Mack and Price's Fork. And then we have two intersections

on Route 114. Both of them are the Vicker Switch intersections. Um so we're calling them Vicker Switch East and West. We will be submitting smart applications to help fix both of those intersections. Um we will see how that goes. We will likely be hiring a consultant to take a look once we get through pre-application to take a look at the Marry Mack Road intersection and see if there's some things we can do to get that cost down or maybe redesign it so it's not as impactful and um so we have a better chance of scoring because it did not score well the last go around. Um, housing planning, we are expecting some legislation to come through the general assembly, probably quite a bit of legislation. Um, so we think there will be some amendments related to that. We are going to continue to work with our housing trust committees. We are learning that we are getting about $8 for every dollar invested into those programs. Um, so it has been a wonderful, wonderful turnaround. um and they are doing good things even though all of them are not in Montgomery County. Um they are doing good things for the region. Um and then we're also going to continue to explore options for not just affordable housing but attainable housing because that seems to be the new word is affordable um versus attainable. Um sometimes affordable is prohibitive, but maybe if we can at least get attainable, we're we're making some headway. Um training, Mr. Foster and I have talked about having training sessions each month um to be presented in a work session. Tonight was your first with open gov. Um that was just kind of a hey this is what we're doing and um we have some upcoming topics. If you have something that you would like to hear about if you'll just let me or Mr. Foster know um we'll start to get it on the radar or and or if you have contacts of someone. Hey, I know

this person speaks really good about transportation or housing or utilities or something like that. Get that on our radar, too, so we can get some different folks in here. Um, text amendments. So, there's, like I've alluded to, we're going to have a lot of updates from the 2026 General Assembly session. Um, Justin and I have been following those. There are some bad bills, troublesome,

there troublesome bills. That's a good diplomatic way to look at it. There are some that are troublesome. Um, but we're we're going to have to push through and and deal with them the best way we know how. There are some that are good. Um, so we and there are some that were horrible that through um APA Virginia and Veco we have made a little better. So that's always good. Um Justin and I sit on legislative calls every Friday at noon with the American Planning Association Virginia chapter and um we routinely send emails, comments or contribute to the conversation. Hey, this is not going to work for us here in McGomery County and here's why. Um so we're trying to make sure that that the legislation is at least something we can work with here in the county. Um, we are also, Judah is very excited about this project. Um, going to begin to work with a consultant to develop a zoning ordinance that will align with our action and goals of the comp plan. Um, and it will also address some of the nightmares that we have daily. Um, hopefully we will have uses that exist and are defined. Um, would be wonderful. And, um, maybe just one use instead of three that say the same thing. that would be even better. Um, and we identify correctly which zoning districts they should and should not be allowed in. So, that will be a huge another huge project. Um, so we're jumping jumping from one huge project to another. And, um, I've talked to Mr. Foster. Likely we will want um, at least two representatives from the planning commission to help us work through that in between the times that we're bringing stuff to you guys during work session. And I believe that's all I have, but I would like to see if anyone has anything that we need to add.

Well, let me first, excuse me, clarify clar clarify training topics. Miss Hopkins may view them as training. I view them as opportunities to broaden our background and learn more about topics other than just reszoning and SUPs. So, um, she may view it as training and come in here with a whip, but uh, I hope not. Your, uh, your plan, your accomplishments for last year were ambitious and your work program not withstanding what you delegated to Mr. Cochran uh, for 2026 is is very ambitious. So, thank you for that. Are there any questions or comments, Miss Op? Mr. Croll?

Yes. Um, Brian, in past years, when you do your um recap from the 25 program, you've had kind of a table with some uh KPIs or some statistics. I I think it would be real interesting. Yeah, I don't know how much uh trouble it would be, but I I would like to see if you had or even for 26, maybe go back a couple years, five years to show how many SUPs were submitted to staff just to kind of see how the workload is progressing from year to year. So, normally when we did the work program, we also coupled that with the annual report,

right? Um, which is where you had all of that data. Um the annual report is not completed because we're still struggling through where we transition softwares. Um so hopefully we will have that for you in the next month or two and we can get you those numbers.

Um so it's it's not it was it was intentional but not because we didn't want to give it to you. It's um we're still trying to get there where we just implemented the software. Um I'm having the same issue with some census data. So, we have to report some stuff to census. Part of the issue with how fast we implemented the software because we had to pull all of the data out of GovSense and get it loaded into OpenGV in some way. We had to set a drop dead date on use of open gov. So, we spent about a month, maybe a month and a half of doing everything by paper again, which was totally eye opening to all of us. Um, so we're still trying to get all that information input back into the new system so I can pull those numbers.

That's what we're working on. And we did switch a fiscal year, too. So, there's that. Yes. Other comments or questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Before we get to um liaison reports, uh I want to call your attention to the upcoming meeting dates. got the regular business meetings of the planning commission, but I want to to highlight the village meeting on April 2nd, the regional planning training here. Is it here building?

It is here. Okay. And the the Riner village meeting on the 23rd. Um, the village meetings I think are important if you can get out to to meet people and see what's going on more uh regionally than the county as a whole. And obviously we want to have a good delegation for the commissioner's training who's catering. We we do not have any caterers at the the I mean I guess we are as staff um we're hosting. So that may or may not determine attendance. Maybe. Okay. Maybe we will get a few treats.

All right. Leaison reports. I don't know if we're getting double teamed or you guys are going to split it up or how you're going to handle it, but uh board of supervisors and the PSA. Mr. King. Huh? Oh, we are getting better. Double trouble. I brought help. I don't think he needs my help, but I have learning to do. I'm sure some of you already met Supervisor.

Nice to meet you all. I think I met most of you except Mr. W. Yeah. and pull it towards you. Oh, there we go. There you go. All right. So, uh, her and I was going to do like Anthony and I did. We're going to switch off and, uh, but she probably will be coming to some meetings that I will be at because she wants to learn and I do appreciate that. Thank you.

So, uh, I'll give you a couple reports. We uh the majority of the board did vote board of sufi did vote to do reassessment every two years. So uh we will be starting our budget session here for long. So please invite everybody to get involved in the budget session because it will affect you. It affect all the citizens of Montgomery County. And would you like to say something? Well, we also know that it's a a very u minimal revenue year. So, it's going to be interesting discussions with the school board coming up uh in a tough tough budget year. Uh we are all anticipating so sadly.

Thank you'all. Thank you. Um Blackburg Planning Commission, Miss Sharp Robinson. Okay. Um the last time I was here, December, I spoke about the uh University Road project that the town of Blackburg denied. So uh there's still a for sale sign up. I'm not sure what the status is now. Uh Tech Terrace was denied and then of course the CBridge project was app has been approved on Cbridge Street. That's all I know. Building. Okay. Christensenburg Planning Commission. Mr. Rice

um let's see the planning the planning commission um have been looking at a reszoning for Roger Woody um on Kimell Lane. I think he was trying to get some land reszone to build I'm thinking around 90 units. I'm not exactly sure on that number but I think it's around 90 units. And um and I think the planning commission voted 3 to two to deny recommendation. Three to to deny and I think town council is going to take it up in two weeks or or excuse me, they had their public hearing I think yesterday and then they'll vote in two weeks. And just interesting to note that um it had come before planning commission previously and and the plan commission had approved it five to three and then uh and then I think the um town council didn't make a decision so uh so it was kind of postponed and then it uh the developer made some changes to it to make it better. It went back to the planning commission and then they voted it down. So, be interested to see what town council does.

Anything else? Uh, that' be all. Okay. Thank you, Miss Simpkins. Uh, yes. Uh, the Radford City Planning Commission met on a Wednesday rather than their usual Monday. So, I was unable to attend that meeting. I had a previous commitment and because they met on January 21st. Um, but I did review their agenda and they did get another update on their zoning um their zoning ordinance update from the company they they'd used through the New River Valley Regional Commission. So, that's the last thing that I've heard from them. They should be meeting this month, but I haven't received a notice yet.

Thank you, Mr. Miller. Tourism Tourism C Mr. Workman. No report. We haven't met. Miss Hopkins.

Yes. So, I want to start. Um, we have our intern here with us and we've not introduced her yet. Um, to everyone, most of you met her at dinner. Um, this is Khloe Wong. She has been with us, this is your second semester now, I think, that she's been with us. Um, we would keep her if we could. She's wonderful. Um, she's helped us at all of our Montgomery Matters open houses since she's been here. Um, and just does exceptional work. So, we um try not to work her too hard, but it does help that she goes to Hawaii and brings me back treats. So, that that makes her even more beneficial. Um but she's been great. So we just wanted to to give her a shout out. Um we do have an open position in the department. So we will be hiring for a planner one. Um this was formerly our transportation planning position. We um Liam has moved on and so we have decided to rework what that position looks like. We kind of know more now than we did when we first hired it. And um so Justin and I are working through that to see how we want it to function and and switching some workloads and work duties around um to see what that looks like. We hope to get that advertised the 1st of March um and then we will move forward from there. Um Mr. Foster stole my thunder. I was going to remind you guys of the village meetings and the planning commissioners training. Um but he's taking care of that. So I don't have anything else. You did not get Price's Fork. Prices Fork is now scheduled. Um it is May 7th. Um we just got that scheduled this week. I believe we got confirmation that we have a a facility. It's at the school. Um so that will be May 7th for Price's Fork.

5:00 5:30 or excuse me 5 to 7:30. 5 to 7:30. Okay. Um believe that is all. Okay. Thank you. There anything else for the good of the order? We are adjourned.