Remarks by James Hedrick
108 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 5
- Play at 20:20
“I'll move to approve both minutes from June 18. Second.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 20:52
“Move to approve the minutes from July 2nd?”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 1:07:31
“So they're sectioning off the whole thing and having different pieces of it being designed and built at one time.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 2:14:02
“I'll move to approve the amendments to the sketch and preliminary plan.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 2:14:14
“Move to approve adoption of the resolutions.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:49:44
“Commissioner Hedrick? Oh, just a couple, just a real couple of comments. I thought the housing section was really good, so I don't have too many comments there other than I appreciate the truing up of the C and the R on the FAR for that. I appreciate that to allow the flexibility. I also, similar concerns a little bit about the about the restrictions, but not a ton given the difference in the pre-existing era. Could you jump to slide 25 real quick? And so with the priority public benefit area for this plan, do we have an idea of what we're getting out of that? that we're not getting otherwise…”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:51:34
“God knows. Linking it to the implementation and to the priority public benefits. Is there any reason for 65 versus 60 or that link? Because most of the programs are linked to 60, but I'm just curious about that.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:51:46
“I'm sorry. I'm dragging you up from the thing.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:52:01
“Just making sure. All right. No, and anything, no, otherwise I just have a few comments on the transportation section. There was, with the right-of-way, I think it was on slide 54. There were several of these in a row, between 54 and 58. Will there be suggestions or recommendations in the draft plan for possibilities of creating the streetscapes here without accessing the additional right-of-way? Because the additional right-of-way comes sort of with the development piece. The development piece comes in, and that might be piecemeal, and we might have one on this block and not to the next and…”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:53:35
“OK, and for the other streets, as well as there are options for interim conditions on River or Friendship Boulevard, I think there was less expansion on the right-of-way, but I was just curious.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:54:11
“Okay, great. No, I just was curious. And then the other question is with cross-section for Friendship Boulevard, I think it was 58. I can read my own handwriting. How does that connect to the D.C. side? What does the cross-section look like as you go down into the D.C.?”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:54:44
“Okay, so it connects well over the jurisdictional line to make sure that we're coordinating and everything like that.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 3:54:49
“Great, thank you. No, other than that, that was just a few questions to clarify, but thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'm good. Yeah.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 4:26:12
“Two-parter. I'll move to approve this plan as the working draft with the public hearings date of September 10th and 14th. Second.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:46:30
“Can I piggyback on that question? Because I have a similar question. this is talking about expansion as well as sort of introducing new things. And I mean, plenty of auto dealerships I've seen are pretty much pavement edge to edge. I mean, a planting at that, in that case would require sort of a where are you going to plant if there's no way to get to the ground. So I'm interested in having some at least flexibility with the shade option, I think, because I think it's better to have, you know, be it on or off site with the planting in addition to the sort of the shade option. So I just wanted…”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:49:08
“If we had, can I, sorry, I'm in an area in which I was concerned. If we allow for flexibility in the placement of the trees, and I think that's an important distinction between just the shade and then the human comfort aspect of it. But if we allow for some flexibility in the placement of the trees, I mean, the storage and parking of the vehicles is not where people are going to be for the most part, if I'm not mistaken, right? I mean, if you're allowing, you know, if you're encouraging the planting of the trees and say you're walking up to the front, you know, the front door of the location…”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:51:06
“And I understand, you know, I get for the most parking structures, but this is a situation which you wouldn't be interacting with that parking structure all that much, at least from a customer perspective, potentially, whereas you might on the other parts of the property. I think it's a reasonable compromise in that case.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:51:39
“May I ask one more question on the setback piece? Josh, did you have something else? No. Are we talking – and I wanted to make sure I was clear on the setback. Are we saying to retain the 100-foot rather than the 50-foot setback for those existing ones, assuming it meets the – if it triggers new construction? Is that what it is?”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:52:29
“Yeah. I mean, I... I like the ability of being able to modify the setbacks, but I'm also considering if you're looking at it and you look to see and it's 100 foot and you look at your site and 100 feet doesn't work, do you ever make that decision in the first place to get to the point where we can modify setbacks? I think the flexibility of 50 feet is worth considering, but 50 feet and also modify its site plan.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:53:47
“I'm just thinking that with things like the, you know, barriers, landscaping, whatever that might be, might, would be covered in other aspects of the zoning code, or is it the only place in which we would be able to adjust that setback or review that?”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:55:11
“I mean, I like the addition of the flexibility. flexibility with the board, but also with the potential setbacks of 50 feet. I'm just trying to think what 50 feet looks like in most auto dealership, you know, auto repair shops that I've ever, you know, been to, and I'm not totally sure there's 50-foot setbacks on those, but it... Well, it's a 50-foot setback if it's, or a 100-foot setback if it's adjacent to residential.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:55:36
“So it's just, that's the other thing. So it's just if it's adjacent to the residential piece. In my case, no. Fine.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 5:56:29
“And we include the vehicle storage and the shade flexibility? Yes. Okay. Yeah, then a move to approve the, transmit the comments on the ZTA with the comments of staff, or the recommendations of staff and then the additional comments made today.”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 6:32:17
“I tend to agree and have the same comments. It rings a little hollow that we moved it because of housing, but we didn't plan for housing. We don't have the feasibility study for the original site. There is no connectivity between this site and the town center. It's two miles away. That's not reasonable to say in this position. It's not near any other housing. And we're not even clear in the forest. We're counting it as cleared. It's counted as cleared acreage, but it's not cleared. I lend toward sending this back for more thought and not approving the mandatory referral at this point because…”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026
- Play at 6:40:24
“Yeah. May I ask a clarifying? So there is, from the staff report, there is a portion of about one and a half acres on the site that's being counted as cleared, but not actually being cleared because there's no housing being proposed. But it's being counted as cleared for the purposes of the forest conservation plan?”
Planning Board · Jul 16, 2026