Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Call to June 16th, 2026 meeting of the Suffolk Planning Commission to order. This meeting is video recorded for public viewing and televised. We'll have the invocation by Commissioner Powell.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve our community. Thank you for the breath that you give us and the ability to be here today. I pray that you would be with the things that are said here for things that are opposed and things are for. I pray that we would be presented in love for this community. Most of all, Lord, thank you for dying on the cross to save us. In your name we ask it, amen.

Amen. Please stand if able for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Wine, would you please call the roll?

Yes, sir. Commissioner Bauer? Here. Commissioner Creekmore? Here. Commissioner Edwards? Commissioner Goodman? Here. Commissioner Powell? Here. Commissioner Thornton-Manuel?

Here.

Vice Chair Hicks? Here. And Chairman Stahler? Here. Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum.

Very good. Thank you. The minutes of the May 21st, 26th meeting were included in your packets. Are there any questions or corrections? Seeing none, they will stand approved as presented. We have four public hearings today. Public hearings are for, hold on one second. Public hearings are for 30 minutes, 10 minutes for the proponents, 15 minutes for the opponents, and 5 minutes for the rebuttal by the proponents. Our first public hearing is Conditional Use Permit Request CUP 2026-00004, Myrtle Mitigation Bank. Mr. Wyman, would you please read the caption?

Yes, sir. Conditional use permit request CUP 2026004 Myrtle Mitigation Bank submitted by James Parker, applicant on behalf of Clearwater Mitigation 6 LLC, property owner in accordance with sections 31306 and 31406 of the Unified Development Ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a wetlands mitigation bank on property located at 2101 Buckhorn Drive Zoning Map 30, Parcel 14. The affected area is further identified as being located in the Holy Neck Voting Borough, Zoned A Agricultural Zoning District. The 2045 Comprehensive Plan designates this area as outside of the growth area, rural agricultural land use today. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report And recommendation to City Council relating to conditional use permit CUP 2026-004. Staff Planner Isabella Reynolds will present staff's report.

Thank you, and good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. Before you today is a conditional use permit request to establish a wetlands mitigation bank at subject property located at 2101 Buckhorn Drive. The subject property is located outside of the growth areas and is designated as a rural agricultural land use type in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. The subject property is owned agricultural and it is surrounded to the north, south, east and west by agricultural zoning district. The proposed wetland mitigation bank will be approximately 212 acres. This CUP request is unique in nature as it crosses jurisdictional boundaries. The proposed mitigation bank will be located within the city of Suffolk and Isle of Wight County. On the screen are the subject properties of the proposed mitigation bank located within the city of Suffolk. As you can see, there are two different colors. The parcels outlined in blue are not identified by Suffolk's Assessor's Office and therefore do not have tax map numbers or account numbers within the City of Suffolk. However, since the parcels fall within the jurisdictional boundaries of the city, the parcels will be part of the CUP. The parcel outlined in purple is in Suffolk's Assessor's Office and therefore has a tax map number and account number. Since this CUP request is near the district jurisdictional boundary of Isle of Wight, notice was sent to the county. Isle of Wight has reviewed the application and at this time has no concerns or comments. Wetland mitigation banks are permitted by right in the Rural Agricultural Conservation Zoning District in Isle of Wight County. For decades, the subject property has been operated as a silviculture farm for lollipop pines. Over the decades, the operation of lollipop pine farm has resulted in the drainage of wetlands, loss of native habitat, and the introduction of non-point source pollution. On the screen is the CUP project area map provided by the applicant. As you can see on the screen, the CUP consists of two different projects. Outlined in blue are the limits of the Wetland Mitigation Bank within Suffolk. Outlined in green, the triangular area, is the limits of the ecological restoration area. I will now be turning over the presentation to our environmental planner, Cassidy. Thank you.

Thank you, Isabella, and good afternoon, commissioners and chairmen. As you can see above and as Isabella stated, the CUP request is for a wetlands mitigation bank that consists of the overall larger mitigation bank and the ecological restoration project. Both of these projects effectively operate the same and is why they were determined to be covered under the same CUP. So both projects will restore degraded wetlands, be protected under a conservation easement, and are subject to similar permitting and oversight by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The primary difference between these two projects is that a traditional mitigation bank generates wetland credits that can be purchased to whoever needs them, which is the larger overall project. And then the ecological restoration project is also referred to as a permitting responsible mitigation or PRM, will provide mitigation credits to a specific customer or a project. Outside of the land disturbance during the final logging of the site, land disturbance will be limited to along the access roads or access along the existing logging roads. and temporary staging areas and targeted ditch work. Existing ditches will be plugged and graded to promote water retention and mimic more natural wetland areas. During the final logging of the site, some trees, limbs, and logs will remain to create native habitats such as snags, tree stump hollows, and woody debris piles. And above are the specification diagrams for these habitats. FOLLOWING ALL GRADING AND LOGGING OPERATIONS, THE SITE WILL BE REPLANTED WITH A DIVERSE SELECTION OF NATIVE PLANTS CONSISTING OF BOTH WOODY AND HERBACIOUS VEGETATION. IN CONCLUSION, STAFF BELIEVES THAT THIS CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT REQUEST SATISFIES THE CRITERIA SET FORTH IN SECTIONS 31-306 AND 31-406 OF THE UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE. THE PROPOSED USE IS ALIGNED WITH THE LAND USE DESIGNATION IN THE COMP PLAN AND IS NOT ANTICIPATED TO HAVE ADVERSE IMPACTS TO THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITY. STAFF RECOMMENDS APPROVAL OF CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT CUP 2026-004. THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

We will now open the public hearing. Who would like to come forward and speak in favor of this conditional use permit? Anyone here to speak in favor? If not, anyone here to speak in opposition? Anyone here to speak in opposition? Seeing none, Public hearing is closed. Commissioners, questions, comments, or motion is in order.

I make a motion to approve CUP 2026-00004.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion? If not, we'll call for the vote. Mr. Wyand. Commissioners, please vote.

Mr. Chairman, the motion passes by a vote of seven to zero.

This conditional use permit was approved and will go before city council on July the 15th, 2026 with our recommendation for approval. Moving on. The next item on our agenda is conditional use permit request 2026-00007 ocean storage. Mr. Wyne, will you please read the caption?

Yes, sir. Conditional use permit request, CUP 2026007, ocean storage submitted by G. Thomas Minton, the third applicant on behalf of Bennett's Creek Partners LLC property owner. In accordance with sections 31306, 31406, and 31709 of the Unified Development Ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a mini-warehouse use on property located along Shoulders Hill Road, zoning map 12, parcel 55, star 1D star 2 star a the affected area is further identified as being located in the sleepy hole voting borough zoned to be to General commercial zoning district and Scott special corridor overlay district the 2045 comprehensive plan designates this area as part of the northern growth area commercial corridor land use type when you act on this request you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and recommendation to City Council on relating to conditional use permit CUP 2026-007. Once again, staff planner Isabella Reynolds will walk you through staff's report.

Thank you. And again, good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. Before you today is a conditional use permit request to establish a mini warehouse use, an ocean storage facility located along Shoulders Hill Road. The subject property is located within the Northern Grove area and is designated as a commercial corridor land use type in the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. THE SUBJECT PROPERTY IS APPROXIMATELY FOUR ACRES IN SIZE AND IN ZONE B2 GENERAL COMMERCIAL ZONING DISTRICT. THE SUBJECT PROPERTY IS CURRENTLY A CONSTRUCTION LAYDOWN YARD. THE PROPERTY IS TO THE NORTH OF THE SUBJECT PROPERTY ZONE RU RESIDENTIAL URBAN AND B2 GENERAL COMMERCIAL ZONING DISTRICT. THE PROPERTIES TO THE SOUTH ARE UNDEVELOPED LAND ZONE B2 GENERAL COMMERCIAL. THE PROPERTIES TO THE EAST ARE ZONE TND TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT. THE PROPERTIES TO THE WEST ARE ZONE RU RESIDENTIAL URBAN. On the screen is the conceptual plan for the proposed ocean storage. The applicant proposes a 105,000 square foot indoor storage facility. Additionally, the applicant is proposing an outdoor storage area. The outdoor storage area will be for boats and RVs. The outdoor storage will be fenced and sufficiently screened with the required landscaping. There will be two entrances for the site, a right in and right out on Shoulders Hill Road and a right in right out on Meadowview Boulevard. On the screen is an aerial view of the parcel, which is outlined in red. The subject property is located among Shoulders Hill Road, which is our arterial road. Per the traffic memorandum that was submitted with the CEP request, Shoulders Hill Road carries approximately 14,000 vehicles a day. The trip generation for ocean storage was done so based upon the square footage of the facility. Based upon the proposed square footage of 1,500 square feet, the use will generate approximately 135 vehicle trips daily. Using the same calculations for the facility, staff was able to determine that the outdoor storage would generate about 18 daily trips. However, due to the nature of boat and RV storage, the trip estimate for the outdoor storage is not high enough to significantly increase the total average daily trip generation for this site. As mentioned in the staff report, Shoulders Hill Road is currently being widened, and this will help to alleviate any potential traffic. To mitigate any potential adverse impacts from traffic, staff has proposed a condition of approval that Meadowview Boulevard must be fully divided improved to today's standards prior to the insurance of a certificate of occupancy. On the screen is the front elevation of the proposed ocean storage. The proposed office hours for the ocean storage is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday through Sunday. Any after hour access to the interior storage units will require coordination with the site management. The outdoor storage area will be accessed by a code secured gate. On the screen is the rear view of the proposed ocean storage. As previously mentioned, the subject property zone B2 general commercial is designated as the commercial corridor land use type in the comprehensive plan. The B2 zoning district permits by right more intense uses than a mini warehouse. Some permitted by right uses in the B2 are automobile repairs, car washes, gas stations, and shopping centers. On the screen is a Google Street View image of the existing ocean storage located along Nansman Parkway. This is an example of what the proposed final project could look like. Please do note that this property along Nansman Parkway is zoned M1, light industrial, and many warehouses are permitted by right in the zoning district. Also, the elevations provided by the applicant will be conditioned as part of the approval of the CUP request. In conclusion, this conditional use permit does sufficiently satisfy the criteria set forth in the UDL. The proposed ocean storage is aligned with the commercial corridor land use designation in the 2045 comprehensive plan. Furthermore, the proposed use is consistent with the intent of the B2 zoning district and is compatible with the surrounding commercial uses. Also, the proposed use is not anticipated to have adverse impacts to the surrounding community. Therefore, staff recommends approval of CUP 2026-007 with the conditions outlined in the staff report. I will be standing by for any questions following the public hearing. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Reynolds. We will now open the public hearing. Who would like to come forward and speak in favor of the conditional use permit?

Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the Commission. My name is Grady Palmer. My business address is 222 Central Park Avenue in the city of Virginia Beach. And it's a pleasure to be here today on behalf of Mr. Minton and Mr. Burnett, who are both the applicants for this new location for ocean storage. As you just heard, ocean storage is located on Nansman Parkway, about three miles south of this location on Shoulders Hill Road. I know there's been a lot of discussion about why do we need another storage facility and I'll tell you that's a common discussion point in all the cities in which I work and I'll tell you this is a very heavily growing part of the city. There are a number of residential units that have come online and that will come online and from our perspective we see a significant for additional indoor storage, and that is why these applicants, if approved, would be making about a $10 million investment in the city of Suffolk that does not require any city services. I know a lot of the projects I represent have heavy demands on city services, and the constant discussion about school impacts, traffic, those things are legitimate concerns in Suffolk. This proposal has no school children, has very, very little traffic impacts to Shoulders Hill Road or 17. In fact, I want to quote from the staff report. What the traffic engineers anticipate is in the weekday AM rush, nine total trips. And in the PM rush, in the afternoon rush, 15 total trips. And there's been a weekend analysis that on a Saturday, This would generate about 18 trips during the weekend rush hour traffic. So this is a very, very low traffic generator compared to all the other uses that Isabella talked about that would be permitted by right that would not come before this commission. And as you can see on the screen, this property is surrounded by residential and there'll be more residential along the back. And so it's also important to consider the quiet nature of this use. And so ocean storage, anybody's welcome to go and visit the Nansman River, Nansman Road location, very, very, very quiet use. And I think that's appropriate here given the amount of residential that's developed around the site. We're a great neighbor for close proximity residential, both on the indoor storage and on the boat and RV storage as well. You know, those are important from the city perspective as well because you know, the city is always in all cities are constantly issuing notice of violation for boats and RVs and neighborhoods and subdivisions that are improperly parked and so this will give people In the shoulders Hill Road 17 corridor places to legally park their boats and RVs and have them very accessible to their homes and so if you if you were to live in any of the surrounding properties and accessing your goods, your personal property in the storage facility, but also your boat and RV, very, very accessible while being a very good neighbor to surrounding homes. One of the things I'm glad to hear Isabella say that I was a little concerned about, and I'll defer to staff, but we did submit elevations, and you can see that on the screen right here. So we just want to make sure that if the commission were to approve, uh, the, uh, the conditional use permit, that the elevations are included in the approval as a condition, because, uh, we are intending to build this. Uh, facility and we want this facility to look this, this, uh, this well. And so, but I also want to make sure from the city's perspective that you get what we're, if it were to be approved, that this is what would be constructed is what we're telling you. And so I would ask that you clarify and ensure that there is a motion to approve that it includes. Um, these, these building elevations, because this is, I think a very good looking building and blends well, uh, into the, into the built environment around it. Uh, with that, I'll ask Mr. Minton to come up and give brief remarks about the business, uh, and his, uh, reasons for wanting to locate here. Thank you.

Yes, sir. If you'll give us your name and address, please, sir.

Well, Thomas Minton, 73 31 Barbary lane, Norfolk, Virginia. Thank you all very much for having me. I want to also thank the planning staff at the planning department that Isabelle and her team have been Wonderful working with me and and very patient so you all have a great great office here of folks, but a little bit about ocean storage we've We have 13 actively open right now between Hampton Roads and Richmond. We've built a few others over the years, but we've sold a few. My partner, Michael, and I have been doing this for 25 years. We both live in Norfolk. My grandparents lived over here on Bennett's Pasture Road, so I'm very familiar with this part of town. Our location on Nansman Parkway that she showed you earlier is stabilized and doing excellent. We have another one on Town Point Road in Portsmouth. that is stabilized and also is doing very well for us. So we see the demand here. We strive to build nothing but the best. We want to be the best in class. So we build them to look like this. It's 100% indoor climate storage. We have a manager on site. We use AI generated camera systems. We'll have about 65 cameras in and around this property. We don't worry about crime. The AI generation has really changed that aspect for us. We didn't have much to begin with, but those camera systems are phenomenal. Our clients will use this for all sorts of things, residential uses. We have a lot of businesses, startup businesses that use these facilities. About a third of our business is business related. The use is quiet. We don't have any dumpsters on site in terms of the neighborhood and surrounding areas. We're about as quiet and less traffic generating as any other use out there. There's many other positives I could go through, but I don't want to hold you guys up. I'm here to answer any questions you all have, but I really appreciate you all giving us the opportunity to build a second location. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here that has any comments relating in favor of this? Anyone else? If not, is there anyone here that would like to speak in opposition? Ma'am, would you please give us your name and address?

Good afternoon, I'm Jeannie Swain. I live in the Vineyards, which is directly across this proposed building. I wasn't planning on speaking today, but after listening to the presentation, I felt like I needed to present my point of view and most of what my neighbors. We went to a listening meeting about a week ago that Councilwoman Ebony Wright presented. and a lot of people can't make it during the day because it's two o'clock, it's a hard time, but I can speak. First of all, we're a small neighborhood of 118 units. We abut to a residential neighborhood with homes, traditional homes. There are a lot of children in that neighborhood, but in our neighborhood, it's mostly my age. It's a little senior. We're already experiencing so much traffic on Childers Hill Road. The number of vehicles coming in doesn't sound like a lot, but when you add on to what we're already dealing with. I just can't see it being an improvement to our neighborhood. I feel that having that big unit directly across from our neighborhood, especially the ones on the front, is gonna severely impact our value. YOU KNOW, MOST OF US ARE ELDERLY AND THAT'S OUR BIGGEST INVESTMENT IS OUR HOMES. AND I BELIEVE TO BE PUTTING THAT RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, THREE STORIES WITH LIGHTS ON 24-7 IS GOING TO IMPACT ESPECIALLY THAT FRONT ROW OF OUR HOMES. They have another unit. Ocean Facility has another unit in about 3.2 miles from where they're proposing this new one. I understand their business concept and their business model. I understand the need or the want to expand. But they're looking to get the majority of business at our expense. I don't see any value added. We have a school, Creekside Elementary is right down the street on the same side of the road. Those buses come in and out, you're gonna have a big increase of moving vehicles, more storage. Moving facilities are gonna be moving kids back and forth to school and you're gonna have these units busy, busy, busy during the day. I just don't see any value added. I hope you consider those comments, thanks.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else here who would like to speak in opposition? Anyone else to speak in opposition? Seeing none, you have five minutes for rebuttal.

Just briefly, the part of point of talking about traffic generation is always compared to what can be done by right and that's how we always look at it we have those discussions all the time if it's not this it's something else that will be by right won't come to the Planning Commission won't come to the City Council it'll just be an administrative staff review and so that's why we talk about that so we can understand that what we're proposing compared to what what else can happen without any public input and so again very very low traffic generator I mean, I know with the expansion of Shoulders Hill Road, there will be a significant buffer between that community and this property. Again, if it's not this, it will be something else that could be built at the same height. I know B2 allows up to 65 feet in height. So, again, if it's not this, what is it? It will be something probably more of a traffic generation characteristic. Uh, and could be, uh, it's, uh, it's built up to three stories anyway. So again, we're always comparing what we're proposing, but what can be done by right. And that was the point of discussing, uh, those issues with the earlier. So with that, I'll stand by for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Uh, any other comments on rebuttal? Seeing none as public hearing is closed commissioners, questions, comments, or motion would be in order.

Uh, yes, chairman. Before I get into making a motion, Mr. Milton? Milton? Yes, Milton, could you please come up, sir? How you doing today?

Good. How are you, Selena?

All right, all right. It was nice meeting you out on site. Just talk about a couple things that we talked about. What is the vacancy rate of these storage units that you currently own, the vacancy rate?

We hover, we call it stabilized around 85%. Both of the stores that I mentioned are at stabilization. It fluctuates. Every day we have people moving in, moving out. Both of those sites, the one in Portsmouth that's about four, a little over four miles away, and the one to the south are both stabilized. In our opinion, we like to look at one, two, and three mile rings. There's really nothing like this particular facility, anything close to it within a two mile ring with a lot of density from Harborview all the way down Shoulders Hill and down Route 17. There's no doubt in our mind that this facility will do extremely well based on just the one and two mile demographics that we've studied.

I know you've seen the staff report. Have you taken a chance to read through all the public comments that were submitted?

Of course.

It was a lot, right?

Yes.

It was a lot. And the majority of them was opposing this storage unit for various reasons. It wasn't just the traffic. It was, you know, the neighborhood had a concern with this type of B2, a storage unit, outside of the window. You know... I mean, there's a lot going on in North Suffolk. You know, that's the growth area. And I could tell you the people that live there that we don't talk a lot about is our green space. You know, I mean, I understand that you said you wanted to add trees, but the trees aren't 60 feet.

I don't think they ever get to 60 feet. The whole row of pine trees that we looked at the other day will stay between the houses to the west. The proffers at the city, they're requiring me to put the top level screening of trees all along Shoulders Hill Road and Meadowview. And one thing that we have done, it doesn't show up on your plan, but I think the setback on Meadowview is 20 feet. We've already agreed, and I told my engineer, push the fence another 40 feet. And we're going to create on that corner of Meadowview Boulevard, our sign will be there, a monument sign, but everything else will be professionally landscaped up to 60 feet off of Meadowview and then the fence with the brick columns that'll kind of encapsulate our parking area. So in terms of green space, I'm doing more than required. I haven't asked for any variances. I haven't asked for any height changes. any size changes to the building footprint. I haven't asked for anything that's not already within the guidelines. In fact, I'm trying to push it and make it more green on that corner for the folks that hopefully will be our customers. So like he said, this will be over a $10 million project. We don't take risks like that unless we're certain it's going to be a successful project. If you look at any of my ocean storage facilities, we get recommendations from our architect or who is our architect all the time because they all look very nice. And all the neighborhoods tend to approve and are happy that we've come into their neighborhood at the end of the day.

Yeah, I'm not denying that it's a nice building.

But I mean, if everyone's going to be looking at it, we try to design it so it's something that they can look at and be proud that's there. We put a lot of windows in, a lot of brick, standing seam metal. So we're trying to design it in such a way that it looks like a quality product.

Yeah, I totally understand. I understand you're a businessman. I mean, I wasn't going to make this comment, but I'm going to say it anyway. You know... I've never seen a U-Haul following a hearse. So I don't understand all these storage units that's popping up. Even in a 10-mile radius, there's over 15 storage units around North Suffolk. I don't know if we're becoming consumers of junk, and we just holding on to it, and we just want to profit off of storage wars. I'm not getting it. But for this particular storage unit right here, I do have to take consideration of what the people have said on their public comments. So I appreciate you coming up to the mic, sir.

I'm on leave with this. Like Grady said, I know traffic was not the only concern, but it certainly was one of the more prevalent concerns. And like he said, this could be a strip center with 4,000 cars coming and going every day. So do you want 150 cars coming and going from this site, or do you want potentially 10 times that amount, 20 times that amount? I don't think the neighborhood... Understands that you know the by right uses could be a lot worse. This is not a bad use. It's a quiet use It's a clean use and we run it locally. We're local owners. We take up great pride in these buildings I'm not someone sitting in New York Not knowing what's being built I'll be over at this site every day for the first few years that it's there so I Can rest assure we'll take great care of that neighborhood and there won't be any problems with us Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you

Commissioners anyone else I was gonna try to catch you while you're still up there anyone else have any questions What are some of the bad rights that a company can come in and put there What are some of the bad rights?

In the b2 districts some of the More impactful buy-right uses, meaning no conditional use permit required would be convenience store with gas sales. So think, you know, your Wawa Royal Farms. A drive-thru restaurant, the fast food restaurant with drive-thru. A lot of auto-oriented businesses. You can see that with the Caliber Collision right down the road. That was a buy-right use, so mechanical repair of cars. There's another by right use, car washes, things like that. Those are just a few of the more impactful uses. From a traffic perspective, the convenience of gas sales is really high on the turnover. So would really any sit-down or fast-food restaurant, as well as shopping centers and grocery. Right. All by right. Yes, sir.

Explain that by right, because I think some people don't always understand what by right means. They hear it, but they really don't understand what by right means.

That's a good question. Thank you. When it comes to by right versus conditional use permit, conditional use permit is acknowledgement that a use is maybe appropriate for... certain property based on a variety of considerations that we look to the UDO for, but basically they may have potential negative impacts that we would have the ability to condition to ensure that it operates within the neighborhood compatible with the adjacent land uses. For by-right uses, that is not a legislative process, meaning that it doesn't come to Planning Commission, it doesn't come to City Council. That is an administrative review process that site plan is submitted and reviewed by staff, and they have to meet our minimum development requirements, but there's no public hearing, there's no ultimate action by City Council. an administrative approval process. The conditional use permit is the opposite of that and they have to seek approval from city council with adequate public hearings before both the planning commission and city council before they can proceed with the site planning process. Thank you.

Commissioners, any further questions?

I just have a comment. Not for you, you can have a seat. I want everybody to know that I had gotten a call, I live out that way also, gotten a call two weeks ago from one of the owners in that area and very upset about this. And as a result of that, the city conducted a information program, I guess you would say, for the residents in that area last Friday a week ago. As a result, and what happened during that particular meeting, it was explained by the city what the process is in terms of changing zoning requirements, things that citizens can be involved with in terms of doing issues like this, and I'll take this as an example, about what can be done by reviewing the information that the city provides to all citizens in Suffolk in preparation for a presentation for not only this commission, but also to the city council. And so the purpose of this, and it was conducted by Who was it? Ebony. Ebony Wright, who is a council person in that area. And also attending was Kevin Hughes, who is a city manager of Suffolk. So it was very, at our level, it was a very high level, to me, presentation. Two of us, Selena and myself attended, didn't have anything to say. We can't participate in things like that. But we were there for information, basically, because we knew that there was going to be some questions that came up. And they were, but it was very well attended. We probably had, what, 40 or 50 people there, I guess, in attendance, which was a lot. And we had it at the new... relatively new recreation center, which was the old reserve center. But it worked out very well. I just want to let you know that in this particular forum, there were some discussions prior to this that were held to give us information about what we thought. not only for the couple of people that were there from this commission, but also to city council folks that were there. So with those comments, I would, and of course the Planning Commission has already recommended approval for this, and that's where we are. I'm not going to make a motion one way or the other on that.

All right. You got a comment?

Mr. Mitton, I'm sorry. I was slow on the gun. I have to agree with Commissioner Thornton that I think there's something going on with people. It seems like the more storage units you open up, the more it gets filled up. So I don't know what we have. We have something going on with us as it relates to holding on to junk. But that, hey, you get to win from that.

I can promise you it's not all junk in these places. Like I said, we have true businesses that run out of these places. We have people that are storing treasures that have been handed down. I know everyone thinks that they're full of junk, but I can assure you they're not.

I get it. We just don't go to the storage unit once a year, but I get it. Here's my question. While you were explaining, you happened to say that you had a couple that you sold. I have never heard of one closing down. Why did you sell them, and where were they, and was location a reason?

I was much younger, and I could have used the money back then raising my family.

Oh, okay. So it didn't have anything to do with location or being able to fill it up.

No. No. We're trying to build them and hold them now, but I was just trying to explain how many of these we have actually done. We've upwards of 20 of these facilities that we've done. So we know how to build them, and we We take pride in how we build them. So this isn't our first time building one is what I was trying to explain. Thank you.

I want to just clarify a comment because I don't want my words taken out of context when I say they full of junk. All right. I just want to clarify that.

Yeah, I know. I was clarifying too.

All right. I understand, you know, the storage units, you got people that's moving that only need it for a month.

There's a lot of reasons.

You got military also that's in transit. I understand that part also. So I just want to clarify that it's not all junk.

We talk about it all the time, the four Ds of self-storage. Someone dies, someone gets divorced, someone's downsizing, or someone's being dislocated, which is our military, happening all the time around every one of our cities here. We cater to the military more than anyone, probably. So there's a lot of reasons why storage is important to people. Yeah, we have the people that keep it as a garage, and they'll have it for years, and they never even know what's in it. But a lot of these people really need the storage, and it's important. I mean, North Suffolk is growing. We all read about it in the paper. It's the fastest-growing part of the state almost. So I know you're seeing some of this stuff popping up, but there's a reason. There's all these houses coming in, so somebody's got to build these. If it's not me, it's going to be somebody else.

Yeah, yeah.

But I am local, and I'm trying to stay local. We don't really grow anywhere else except between here and Richmond. So we're your local team, if you will. All right.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. All right. I mean, I kind of struggled with this a little bit when I first saw this. And I read through the comments. And I also was with Ebony Wright at the informational session. And the day that we met, I stood out there and I had to just visualize this building and put in perspective of what these homeowners would feel and their comments and also what this would bring to the area. So I see both sides of the fence, but I'm not going to hesitate. and debate this any longer. So I would like to make a motion on conditional use permit CUP2026-0007 for the ocean storage. I'll make a motion to disapprove this.

Say there's a motion on the floor for denial.

Motion for denial.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any other questions or comments?

I'd like to make a comment. From a real estate perspective, I think the business is sound and they are community minded. I think they think through things and they see a need. Um, I was very surprised once I took the time to read through probably the biggest, um, the longest amount of comments I've seen in a bit on a, um, application. It was actually yesterday I was showing a condo on Union Pacific, which is backs up to that. I've shown several condos in that community. And when I first spoke with the applicant and I was like, I know this is going to be everyone in that community is going to be so excited. This is going to be their garage, because a lot of those units over in Bennett's Creek Quarter and the Array, a lot of them don't have garages, and even those that do, they're really small. But then when I read through the comments, they were almost all from that community, which is just baffling to me. So I... I'm kind of, I'd say a loss of words, but that's never me. But that was very astounding. The folks that I thought would be the most for this, and I get it, it's in their front yard, but I thought that had the highest need for it are in opposition of it. So that gives me a little bit of pause with the number of these facilities in this area. I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THAT OBSERVATION.

COMMISSIONERS, WE HAVE A MOTION ON THE FLOOR IN A SECOND FOR DENIAL. ANY OTHER COMMENTS?

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO REMIND ALL OF US THAT WHEN WE SEE COMMENTS, WE'RE GOING TO SEE THE COMMENTS THAT ARE GOING TO BE not wanting something. So we also have to weigh all of that, and you guys need to understand that too. We understand that we see negative comments, but we also hear positive comments. So you might read this, but then there's also that other majority of people, that other silent majority of people who don't say anything because they don't care. So understand that we're not just looking at the comments.

Commissioners? No further comment? Call for the vote. A yes is a no in this case.

Commissioners, please vote. Mr. Chairman, the motion passes by a vote of five.

to two. This conditional use permit was denied and will go before City Council on July 15th with our recommendation for denial. Moving on. Next item on our agenda is conditional use permit 2026-00011, CEP Solar. Mr. Wein, will you please read the caption?

Yes, sir. Conditional use permit CUP 2026-011 CEP Solar submitted by Paul Cousins, Old Myrtle Solar Farm LLC applicant on behalf of Susan Lynn Perry, property owner. In accordance with Sections 31306, 31406, and 31724 of the Unified Development Ordinance to grant A conditional use permit to establish a solar energy facility on property located on Old Myrtle Road. Zoning Map 23, Parcels 2, 3, 4, 5, and 20. The affected area is further identified as being located in the Holy Neck Voting Borough Zoned A Agricultural Zoning District. The 2045 Comprehensive Plan designates this area outside of the growth area area. Rural agricultural land use type. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and recommendation to city council relating to conditional use permit CUP 2026-011. Staff Planner Caitlin Offit will present staff's report.

Hi, good afternoon, everybody. So this is a conditional use permit request for a utility-scale solar facility. So shown on my map, denoted by the yellow star, the particular project is slightly south of Prudhomme Boulevard along Old Myrtle Road, adjacent to the CEX Railroad line. Zoomed in a little there just so you can see the property a bit better. I want to note this is a compilation of five parcels, which I outlined in orange. The properties are designated as rural agriculture in the comp plan and are located outside of the growth area. You'll note that this project is fairly close to Isle of Wight County, so in accordance with state code, we did provide notice to Isle of Wight County administration. They reviewed the request, and they didn't have any comments for us. That's an aerial view of the property. Again, I've highlighted it in blue so you can see it. The property itself is fairly large. It's about 343 acres combined. I'll discuss this in a couple of slides, but the solar facility is not going to make up the majority of that acreage. The property in the city of Suffolk, as is everything around it, is zoned agricultural. I did want to make note of the zoning in the Isle of Wight since it is close. What's shown in the red, that's rural agricultural conservation zoning district, and then their light and general industrial is shown in that gray color. For what's around this site, just to give you all some context, again, we have detached single-family homes, cropland, some undeveloped wooded land. Again, to the west, running pretty much right along the property line is the railroad. Highlighted in orange, too, there's a small industrial park that's in Isle of Wight that's right up Old Mill Road with a couple of smaller distribution facilities as well. So at a high level for this particular proposal, this is a little bit of a larger solar facility. It's going to have that full build out at 15.68 megawatt capacity. In addition to the panel array itself, the proposal for the other equipment is going to be five central concrete pads that are going to have the inverters and transformers. I noted earlier again, a lot of acreage in terms of total property size. However, the array itself within the fenced area, including the inverter equipment, is only going to take about 63.9 acres. I WANT TO ALSO, THIS IS JUST IMPORTANT TO NOTE, SOME OF YOU MIGHT BE AWARE THAT THE STATE RECENTLY PASSED LEGISLATION THAT GOES INTO EFFECT JULY 1ST AS IT CONCERNS SOLAR FACILITIES AND HOW LOCALITIES CAN REGULATE SOLAR FACILITIES. I WANT TO NOTE THOSE REGULATIONS ONLY APPLY TO PROJECTS THAT ARE SUBMITTED ON OR AFTER JULY 1ST OF THIS YEAR, GIVEN THAT THIS PROJECT WAS SUBMITTED TO US BEFORE THAT DATE. THE STANDARDS THAT ARE CURRENTLY IN THE UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT ORDINANCE AND ARE CURRENTLY IN STATE CODE ARE THE ONES THAT ARE APPLICABLE. This is the applicant's sketch plan of the facility. So what you see in this, the red star, the entrance is going to be on Old Myrtle and it's going to follow the dirt road that travels up through the site to the panels. They're arranged in kind of a unique fashion and primarily the reason for that is the site itself has a lot of critical area in terms of tidal and non-tidal wetland that really constrains it from So where the panels are shown are really in those areas with the solar developer wanting to avoid impacts to those wetland areas. And that's also why the road is sort of situated in the way it is. You'll see, and I'm gonna zoom in a little more so you can get a better view of that. On the southern side of the property, you'll see kind of a green sort of kind of a bubble-looking line type, as well as on the east and north. The property is wooded, and so what they're going to be doing is preserving that mature existing vegetation to fulfill that required buffer. The site itself, again, it's larger. It's substantially back from the right-of-way. With the inverters themselves, again, this is over five megawatts and has to observe that 1,000-foot setback from property lines. And it's sited in such a way to do that. To the west along the railroad, again, I have some slides showing what they're going to be planting. That's not vegetated particularly heavily with pre-existing vegetation, probably because it's adjacent to the railroad right-of-way. So they're going to be planting in accordance with our regulations in the UDO to supplement that buffer. I've dashed again. That's the area in the fence line in purple where the array is going to be. Adding this proposed acreage, again, there's that standard in the Unified Development Ordinance as it relates to the amount of agriculture zone land that can be taken for solar facilities. That's about 33% right now with everything that's been approved. The addition of this project will not cause that to reach capacity. So zooming us in a little more just so you guys can see, again, the layout of the array a little better. Again, there's two roads. They kind of split. One goes up to that smaller area to the east, and then the other is to the west. I do want to note, too, along the eastern portion of the property running north-south pretty parallel is a Dominion transmission easement with transmission lines. Phyllida's not going to interconnect with those lines. It's going to connect with distribution lines along Old Myrtle Road. So all the electrical infrastructure that's going to be installed on site up to that point of interconnection on Old Myrtle is going to have to be underground. Zooming in a little more, so I want to note the inverter transformers. Again, on those pads, as shown in light blue, and I've circled them in blue so you can see them a bit better. Again, has to observe a 1,000 foot setback, which they do. So with the project to this side, again, given the size of it and the equipment, again, one of the things that we are concerned with the staff and what we request the applicant provide us is a noise study. So they perform that study. We condition it. What they also do is they give us a, you know, we request a contour map to help kind of visualize the noise produced. Part of that noise study is, again, studying what is the ambient level of sound. and then folding that into what they generate and model as this is the noise that would be produced by the transformers and inverters. So what you see on the noise contour map in that dark purple is that's like the loudest because it's right around the equipment pads. And then out to that dark green is that 40 to 45 decibel. And that does fall within our noise regulations. Again, we do condition this noise study as a condition with the ordinance should this be approved. So when the inverters are installed and the transformers, whatever noise is generated has to comply with what's depicted here. This is a bit unique, so I wanted to kind of call special attention to it. Part of our regulations in the UDO and then as part of this conditional use permit process, we request that applicants furnish us with a historic and cultural analysis. Essentially what that involves is looking at architectural and any recorded archaeological sites that are identified by the state. They're put in this database called VCRIS. After doing that, they did a reconnaissance where archaeologists, you know, walks the site and says, is there any evidence of cultural or historic sites? And what was identified is this cemetery, which is not in vCRIS right now. So what essentially that entails is that, again, under state law, cemeteries do have to be protected and then access given to any descendants that want to visit the site. what will happen with this particular cemetery is they're showing fencing around it because again we have to preserve allow access but we wouldn't want to allow access to the critical infrastructure in the solar facility so the gate's going to kind of be situated in such a way that again provides access around the cemetery but there's a gate which I've circled in red that's going to allow the employees of the solar facility access to you know get in and work on equipment but not the general public. Additionally, for the cemetery, we're going to require a full phase one study at the time of site plan should this be approved, which is a more intense analysis that's done that essentially is done in compliance with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources guidelines. What that does is has an archeological, they do a little bit more of an in-depth survey and just again, identifies the scope of the cemetery. There's a buffer around it that gets fenced and protected during construction and a phase one survey then determines, okay, have we identified that there's, if the resources here, does that warrant any further study or excavation or protection or not? Applicant has also provided photos of the site from different angles showing, again, the existing mature vegetation and what that looks like and what we need that for is how is this going to be screened, essentially, from view of adjacent properties in the public right-of-way. This picture is looking kind of... We're looking at the transmission easement, looking sort of, you know, northwest, if you will. In the yellow dashed line is, once the panels are constructed, you know, this is the height they would be at, showing that they're going to be screened by that stand of mature trees. This is another view near where the site driveway is going to be installed. Again, looking directly north, behind that stand of tall trees is where the site will be located. Another view, again, looking at the front of the site from Old Myrtle. This is a view of the railroad, and this is from if you were to be standing inside of the site and then looking out at the railroad, and currently not vegetated, so the applicant provided us a rendering showing fence line, plantings on the other side of that, and what they would look like at full mature growth. This is one of my photos actually in Isle of Wight on Old Mill looking from the north at that adjacent property at the road looking south. So what you see behind the trees is there's some like wet pond areas and then there's a stand of mature trees and then behind that is going to be the solar facilities. Again, it's very well screened from the adjacent right of way. What we require, as with all solar applications, Old Myrtle Road is a truck-restricted road. And so for the construction haul road, we ask them to identify that. And then that's specifically conditioned as part of the conditional use permit. So the truck can travel from Pruden to the site entrance at Old Myrtle. They can't use Old Mill Road. They can't go south on Old Myrtle. They need to stick to this route until construction is complete. The applicant also provided a drawing that shows they're going to be revegetating and kind of receding with some native grasses and other vegetation under panel. They've also depicted, which is kind of those swoopy purple lines, is like how wildlife would be able to pass through and traverse the site, which they're calling like a wildlife corridor. So in sum, this property, while it is very large, the actual size of the array is less than half of the site. Again, it's at 63 acres out of the 343. And it's also located, due to the size of the property, a substantial distance from the public road and from the adjacent homes. Again, we have our vegetated buffers and location to help kind of mitigate that inverter and transformer noise. So with all that in mind, staff is recommending the Planning Commission forward this application to City Council with a recommendation of approval subject to the conditions as proposed in the draft ordinance. Thank you guys for your time, and I'll be here after the public hearing if you have any questions.

Thank you, Caitlin. We will now open the public hearing. Who would like to come forward to speak in favor of this conditional use permit? Please give us your name and address, please, sir.

Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Members of the Commission, my name is Tyson Utt. I'm the co-founder and manager of Commonwealth Energy Partners and CEP Solar, the applicant for this project. We are based in Richmond, Virginia. The address is 2201 West Broad Street. CEP Solar is a Virginia-based clean energy company, and our purpose is to partner with landowners, with the community, and with customers to deliver these solar projects that can generate both the environmental and the economic benefits over the life of the project. As Virginians, we take this very seriously to deliver high-quality projects. that the city can be proud of for years to come as they operate quietly, generating that electricity that's needed, and as mentioned, delivered to the local distribution system. I think it's important characteristic of this project is not tapping into the large existing transmission lines that cut across this property for transmission elsewhere outside of the community. This is a smaller local project generating power here in the community. We have Paul Cousins, our senior project manager, who's been working on this project. for quite some time and very closely with the city staff, who's going to come up and introduce more details about the project itself. If I may just mention, we have a few members from our team available to answer questions that may come up. Jenna Wood, who's also a project manager on this project. Jackson Eliasek, who's been leading our community engagement efforts. Rick Thomas from the Timmons Group from an engineering perspective. And we're all happy to come and answer questions if we can be of any help. So thank you for your time, and I'd like to hand it over to Paul, if I may.

Thank you. Please give us your name and address, please, sir.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Planning Commission. My name is Paul Cousins. I am a senior project development manager with CEP Solar, also located at 2201 West Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia. I'd first like to thank Caitlin and the planning staff for their professional and thorough review. presentation, and recommendation of approval for our project. As Tyson mentioned, CEP is a Virginia-based company, and we take great pride in being good neighbors and community partners. We cite and design our projects to high standards, engage early and often with neighboring property owners and stakeholders, and invest in the communities we plan to become a part of. Old Myrtle Solar is a proposed distribution scale solar facility that will provide up to 15.68 megawatts of clean energy to the local distribution grid for use by Suffolk homes and businesses. The project will also deliver significant revenue to the city of Suffolk through revenue sharing. It will utilize less than 20% of the total acreage of the subject parcels. The remaining 279 acres will continue to be used for agricultural and timber production. Pete Perry decided to lease his land for the project several years ago as a way to generate additional income for his family while continuing to operate Perry Meadow Farm alongside their farming and timber operations. Pete passed away in February of 2025 and his daughter Susan is now carrying forward what her father started. Old Myrtle Solar will allow Susan to continue operating Perry Meadow Farm for years to come as well as keeping the land in their family for future generations. The project site is designed to meet and significantly exceed the setback requirements in the city's solar ordinance. The facility will be set back over 1,800 feet from Old Myrtle Road and will be fully surrounded by a mature existing vegetated buffer. The design also meets and exceeds the 1,000 foot inverter setback and noise study requirements established in the city's solar ordinance. Inverters, the facility's only sound emitting equipment, will be located at the center of the project, as Caitlin mentioned, at least 1,700 feet from any nearby residents. The surrounding mature forested buffer, which is hundreds of feet wide, will provide an additional sound barrier. A sound study conducted by Ascentec determined that the operational noise from the project will be 10 to 15 decibels below the city's residential noise standards from the property lines. The project will not be seen or heard from any nearby home, residence, or business. As Tyson mentioned, because Old Myrtle is a distribution-scale solar facility, no substation is required as part of the development, and no battery storage is proposed as well. The site has existing access to interconnect with Dominion's three-phase distribution system, so no additional easements are required for the site. Meaningful community engagement has been central to our development process. The CEP team has reached out to every neighboring property owner to introduce ourselves and discuss the proposed project. Every neighbor received a project information by mail and was invited to a community meeting that was held at the College and Career Academy at Pruden on February 24th of this year. Site plans and application materials were presented and subject matter experts were on hand to answer questions. Afterwards, we sent follow-up letters and did additional outreach to project neighbors that were unable to attend the meeting. Our engagement also extended into the broader Suffolk community. We had the privilege of presenting to the Downtown Suffolk Rotary Club in March and have attended several community events, including the first Citizen of Suffolk event and the Suffolk Foundation Fall Forum to network and discuss our project with business members of the community. CEP is also invested in the Suffolk community through our Community Benefits Program, which focuses on STEM education, food security, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. We began by connecting with Lorelei Morrow at the Suffolk Foundation who helped us identify several aligned organizations. Our first partner was the Hero Kids Foundation. Located on Copeland Road not too far from the project site, they support children and families and military personnel and first responders through nature-based and animal-assisted therapies. We have volunteered for many hours on site and are excited to provide a solar-powered charging station for their all-terrain wheelchairs for their Trail of Heroes, which is an accessible nature trail designed for individuals of all abilities. We've also partnered with four kids of Suffolk. We volunteer to organize donations, clean program vans, and stock their community resource patio. We're planning a solar education program and a solar car kit building activity for the four kids after school program in the fall, and we are also sponsoring their upcoming field day in September. Additionally, we had a great opportunity to partner with the STEM Academy at Booker T. Washington Elementary School where we facilitated a solar education program with fifth grade students in partnership with ODU STEM Education Center. That included a presentation from our team, a question and answer session with the fifth graders, which was great, and a hands-on activity in which the students were able to build and race solar-powered car kits outside. It was really a great day. We're already working on new curriculum for them in the fall. We're so proud of the relationships that we've built in Suffolk, and we look forward to continuing to grow our community benefits program in the future. In closing, Old Myrtle Solar is a well-sighted project that will not be seen or heard from any nearby home, residence, or road, or business. It exceeds all setback requirements in the city's development ordinance. It will allow the land to remain in the Perry family while providing stable income that supports their family business. It will deliver clean energy to the local distribution grid and provide significant revenue to the city of Suffolk. FOR THESE REASONS, WE RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THE COMMISSION'S RECOMMENDATION FOR APPROVAL. YOU SHOULD HAVE LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION FROM ALL THE GREAT ORGANIZATIONS THAT WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO PARTNER WITH IN YOUR PACKETS. I HOPE YOU ALL TOOK A LOOK AT THOSE. AND I WILL QUICKLY CLOSE WITH A LETTER FROM OUR LANDOWNER. SHE WAS UNFORTUNATELY NOT ABLE TO MAKE IT. SHE'S HOPING TO BE ABLE TO ATTEND THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING NEXT MONTH. SO I'LL READ SOME WORDS FROM MS. PERRY. parents moved to this location when he was a teenager. His father passed away when he was 20. He began cutting trees, clearing land, and buying small parcels surrounding his home place. He built ponds for raising fish and eventually founded Perry Meadow Farm in the 70s, with his family working by his side. Pete was a hard worker. He's from the old school, and he saved his money and made good investments buying land in several different states. He always found a way to provide for his family and taught his girls that that if you work hard enough, there's nothing that you can't achieve. He was on the farm every day, involved in the business and decision-making as long as his health allowed. A dear friend of his knows Jason Hathcock, who was a director with CEP Solar, and made an introduction to discuss the possibility of solar. At the time, Daddy had just had his 86th birthday. Knowing the process takes five plus years to complete these projects, he focused on finding a way to ensure the farm could be kept in one piece. Over 500 acres was such an accomplishment for him, all of them being contingent parcels that took a lifetime to obtain. My father passed away in 2025, hopeful that this project would come to fruition and provide stable income for years to come and allow his legacy to continue. Solar could provide income to relieve the burden of worry and ensuring the land would be kept for his grandchildren. We plan to continue running the family business for many years to come and farming the row crop land and growing timber exactly the way it was before his passing.

Thank you all so much for the time and the whole team's here to answer questions if you'll have any Thank You mr. Cousins is that's all the time for the Proponent is there anyone here would like to speak in opposition? Anyone here who would like to speak in opposition? Please give us your name and address, please, sir.

Thank you. I'm Tony Bauer. I live at 4264 White Drive in Suffolk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members. For 20 years, I've been driving Old Myrtle Road since I bought my property, and I enjoy getting off of the main traffic and getting onto Old Myrtle Road But in 20 years, that narrow road hasn't had any city attention. If it has had, it sure has gone over my head and my neighbors at that. The reason I bring that up, this project looks like it's probably going to have at least, I don't know, 200 to 400 heavy trucks, industrial bulldozers, everything moving on and off of Old Merle Road, which is, I don't know how many of you folks have driven that road, but it's a narrow road, and it is in disrepair. And I don't know what the company from Richmond intends to do to make up any damage that might occur to Old Merle Road. I'm here for a different but I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else here to speak in opposition? Yes, sir. Please give us your name and address.

My name is Jimmy Smith. I live at 6838 Old Myrtle Road, Suffolk, and I'm here to speak on behalf of another issue that's coming up before you, but I have talked to members and families adjacent to this property that a lot were unaware of what was going on, especially in the neighboring roads and area. And every family that I spoke to in the last week has opposed. You will see some of their names and addresses on the information I'll provide. And I'm sorry I should have provided you information earlier on the upcoming event, but I'll put that in the basket so y'all can look at it. But I just wanted to make you aware, there's a lot of people in that area didn't understand what was going on, and are highly upset. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Anyone else here to speak in opposition? Yes, sir, please give us your name and address.

Kim Rogers, 5824 Old Myrtle Road.

Excuse me, say that again.

Kim Rogers, 5824 Old Myrtle Road, as well as the adjoining lot that sits beside the bordering property. My concerns are, as was just said, the traffic on the road was number one. The noise is number two. I did a little research on the solar farm down on White Marsh Road, and it was a lot of noise coming from that. I think they did a study. They did a detailed study, and I guess the decibels were supposed to come in lower and it appears that they didn't and they're still trying to work on a solution for that. I've been in this house for 22 years and it was something that my father gifted me and his father gifted him. And at that point and in this stage of my life, I really don't want noise out there that will be impactful to not only me but all the other neighbors that border that side of that railroad track as well. There's probably three or four other houses over there as well. So there are my concerns. I hope you all will take that into consideration when you make your vote. Thank you. Have a good one.

Thank you, sir. I still have some time left. Anyone else to speak in opposition? Yes, ma'am. Please give us your name and address.

I LIVE AT 113 PITCH KETTLE POINT DRIVE. MY CONCERN REALLY IS WITH STAFF. JUST SITTING THERE AND THINKING ABOUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON WITH OUR AREA AS OF LATE, WE HAD A 40 ACRE BURNED Brush fire not too far away. I live off a pitch kettle So I know about the the engine there that is always constantly on 58 So what I'm assuming is we would be using all the engines on Kings Fork Road in case there is a fire at a solar facility But I just wanted to give you guys this. Responding units for just a 40 acre brush fire would be B1, CR10, E1, E2, BR1, BR7, BR8, E4, 401, 40R2, R1, T1, T7, M8, SF1, and T8. If you ask me, these are the kind of questions that have to be asked before we approve anything like this. Because like the gentleman said, we're not just getting one solar farm, we're getting two. Pretty close to one another. So how is that going to be handled with the city? That's my question. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Still have some time left. Any other opposition? Anyone like to speak in opposition? Seeing none, the proponents have five minutes for rebuttal.

Thank you all again for your time. I'll touch on a couple of the comments that were made. First, the comment regarding additional traffic and potential road damage. What I will say is this project is, there's very little tree clearing that needs to happen, and the project is very flat. So in terms of bulldozers or grading equipment, there is very little that will need to be used for this project. It's one of the big advantages of this location. Most of the traffic will be personal vehicles for solar installers. The actual civil work for this project will be very infrequent. And deliveries, you know, This is a larger project than some others that have been proposed, but it's still relatively small in terms of solar projects in the state. The deliveries for these panels, it's not going to be that many trucks coming in and out. And again, once the project is operating, we're forecasting about a nine-month construction period total. Once the project is operating, there's really not going to be any other additional traffic coming from this facility, just regular monthly maintenance, one or two cars to check on the project. I know there's another project also on the agenda for this afternoon. What I will say is, you know, we did a lot of outreach with the direct project neighbors. We really didn't have any concerns at that community meeting. All the neighbors that we've spoken with didn't really have any concerns about the project. If there are additional concerns, we are completely happy to meet with and discuss those. And, you know, I think it would be a good idea if we, you know, hold another community meeting between now and the city council meeting if there are additional concerns from those down the road that have come this afternoon to address those concerns and talk a little bit more about our project. We have no problem doing that. I guess I'll add also, you know, in terms of noise, I definitely understand there's been a lot of concerns in the city with noise from solar facilities that have been built. You all have heard all about it too. I've been by the facility on White Marsh Road. What I can say is our project is completely different in its design. The inverters are over 1,000 feet away from the nearest residence. There's a very dense vegetative buffer completely surrounding the project, hundreds of feet of mature vegetative buffer that will help with any sort of noise. We did do the sound study. We're held to that sound study by the new ordinance that addresses this. The study showed 35 to 40 decibels from the property line, which is quieter than an air conditioner hum. It's like a low whisper rustling of leaves. Sound really shouldn't be a concern for many neighboring residences from this project. Finally, I'll just touch on the fire department. Maybe staff could, if there's any questions too. I know that we did not receive any comments from the city fire reviewer for the plans. If there are questions or any concerns, we're happy to meet with anyone about that. We're happy to do that across the state. We do that across the state all the time, so... If anyone has any questions about fire or anyone from the city would like to meet with us and discuss, we're always happy to do so. Thanks, y'all.

Thank you, Mr. Cousins. Any other rebuttal comments? If not, this public hearing is closed. Commissioners, questions, comments, or motion is in order.

I have a question. I guess I have a question of staff. Can you show me? And I'm looking at it the cemetery, but I'm a little bit confused Do you want me ma'am do you want me to go to the black and white image or I'm trying to see how The panels are impacting it. There are no panels anywhere around that. But how does Is that how does that affect people who come over to see their loved ones or whatever?

Let me let me tab back to the full sketch plan and I apologize it's a bit hard to see just due to the So where the purple dashed line is the fencing. And so one would traverse the dirt road inside the fence and then proceed. And you can kind of see it's represented in this straight line with a little circle would follow that. Essentially, the road will be fenced in to the cemetery, which would be encircled by fence and then another gate. is going to secure access to the site from the fenced portion of the road and cemetery that would be accessible to the descendants who wish to visit. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.

And another question, I guess, of the young man who's, I don't know his name. Yeah. There was a question about, and I know that from driving on that road, it's not very wide and it's not very travelable right now. Is there any thought of doing some improvement to the road itself between now and the time that you get your project completed? Because you will be destroying even more roads.

Sure. There has not been any discussion of road improvements. There's a condition. We're conditioned to use a very specific haul route, but other than that, we have not had any discussions. We're certainly open to those discussions with city staff if there are concerns about that, about any sort of bond for road repairs. We can certainly have those discussions. We just haven't had it at this point.

Commissioners?

Yes, sir. Questions? Mr. Cousins. Yes, sir.

You might want to hang around just a second.

I'll stay up here.

Okay. I have a couple questions for you. The end of life for these solar panels, have you been part of a decommissioning project?

No, I have not. The majority of solar facilities that have been built are still operating. There is a very quickly growing market for recycling of solar panels. A lot of those are residential. Those that have been around a lot longer are being recycled. You know, that market is just going to grow as the demand for it grows. But I will say there is a full decommissioning requirement as part of our application where, you know, we will have to fully decommission the site.

Can you explain the decommissioning process? And, I mean, these are some huge solar panels. We're not talking about the ones on the house.

Sure.

So, and the lifespan of these things are from 20 to 40 years. So you may be around to decommission these things and you may not. Just saying, explain the process.

Sure, yes. So the decommissioning requirements from the city, and there's also state requirements as well, require a total decommissioning of the site. That's all infrastructure, all wiring, all panels, racking, even the roads, unless the landowner wants to keep the roads. And you said we might not be around to decommission, but there is a bond that is required that will be around no matter what, and that bond has to be reviewed every five years to ensure that there's enough money in the bond to fully decommission the project.

You said they recycle, so they crush up these panels?

That's right. And then? So over 80% by weight of the panels is just glass and aluminum, which is very easily recyclable. The actual solar panel material itself is silicon-based. It's made from quartzite, sandstone, silicon. There's a big market now for repurposing or completely recycling that photovoltaic material, the solar panel material.

All right. My next question is the concern of these things catching on fire. And I know in your report it says that these things are highly likely not to catch on fire, but what if they do catch on fire?

Sure. Yeah, there have been a few cases of brush fires in the state, especially when there's a larger drought event. Those are The projects are monitored 24-7 remotely. There will be a quick response and quick contacting of emergency facilities, and the fire would be extinguished. But I will say the risk of any sort of fire from these facilities is extremely rare and extremely low.

So there's not a fire suppression system on these solar panels?

No.

You say no?

No, ma'am.

Okay. I've got one more question.

Okay, so the energy that's coming off these solar panels, right, and they're going to be distributed onto another grid, like Dominion. And I think one of your comments says your group has no control over what Dominion would charge.

That's yeah, so the where we would be generating power onto Dominion's grid. That's right So we were we would be we'd be selling the power be sold to the utility onto the grid So yeah, there's not we're not we're not we're not in the business of selling the power to a consumer. That's correct But yeah when I when we were talking about the distribution scale project It's generating power to the local three-phase distribution circuit not to those transmission lines. So the power that is generated is is used and distributed locally. It doesn't go up to that kind of superhighway of electricity that goes to the greatest need across the state.

So in order for a homeowner to get this extra power, they would have to subscribe to Dominion?

I think that might be, this is not a community solar project, that might be another project That's being discussed.

No, this is purely... Oh, okay, that's not it. Okay, I got my bearings crossed. Okay, I'm sorry about that.

We do have those projects in the state, and they're great projects, but this is just too big to qualify for that. Okay.

All right, thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Commissioners?

Just out of curiosity, I'm just noticing, and other people are now beginning to notice, that out of the 430 square miles of land that we have in Suffolk, it seems like all of the solar things are in the same kind of area. Is there some reason for that?

Is there a location issue that you guys have? I can't speak for other projects in the area. The location is that the main driver for that is the available capacity on the distribution grid. We know that we're able to tie in at that area. So that's the primary reason why it's located. Also, you know, it's flat land and we have the space to develop it.

Okay, that makes sense.

Okay, thank you. Commissioners, any further questions?

I was wondering if it would be appropriate, maybe city attorney question. I hate deferring things. I know people hate dragging stuff on, but if the condition of the road of Old Myrtle seems to be brought up and that the applicant seems to be open to discussions about that, I don't know if there was a crossover between the two applications. I'm hearing sort of a mixed message whether or not there was appropriate outreach and conversation with the adjacent neighbors. I'm having a hard time gauging that because of the two being presented at the same time right next to each other For that reason I was just bringing it up as a possibility. I'm sorry. I know y'all probably don't want to hear that but Mr. City Attorney would that be appropriate or is that just being obnoxious?

So this body has a hundred and days hundred days to make a decision So it would be up to this body whether or not you want to make decisions today or move it to a separate meeting

I guess another question is we as a body, we don't really dictate what has to happen during that time. Just for the benefit of what we would like to see happen between citizens and potentially the city, we can't help but create that discussion.

So the director of planning has determined that the application is complete, so all you would be doing is waiting to make your decision at another meeting. If you have some questions that you want answered, you could ask those questions, but at this point, there's nothing you can demand to be added to the application.

Okay. Commissioners? We need a motion then. And a second. Commissioners?

All right. I would like to make a motion. on this particular project, this solar farm, this CUP. So I would like to make a motion for conditional use permit request CUP2026-00011, CEP Solar. I would like to make a motion for denial.

Okay, we have a motion for denial. Is there a second to that motion? Is there a second to that motion? All right, it's been moved and seconded that this project be denied. Discussion?

It's kind of confusing that we have these two projects and the same projects, just different sizes. That's why I'm hesitating. But I'll make up my mind by the time we vote.

Okay. Anyone, any additional comments?

I just want to add one comment. I took a ride out there. I actually spoke with... Did you find the sign? I still did not find the signs, but... I actually spoke with a homeowner out there, and even though I'm from Atlanta, I spent majority of my childhood on a community like Omar Road out there. And I'm visualizing the farmland you know, the quietness, the animals, the community. I almost brought some eggs, but I'll go back out there and buy some eggs later. But, I mean, my concern is, you know, the future, our kids, our generation coming, of these solar panels. I mean, there's just not enough study on the decommissioning process. I mean, I understand they're talking about recycling, But we got a long future ahead of us when we're talking about data centers, solar panels. What are we doing? We can preserve our farmland. And I wish... I mean, we need to help our farmers. I mean, this is... I mean, I hope the White House can watch our planning commission here right now today because we need to help our farmers. The state needs to help the farmers. The city needs to help the farmers. All right? I mean, we can't just keep destroying our farmland. That's all I got to say about it.

Commissioners, any further comments? If not... Please prepare to vote. Mr. Wine, would you call for the vote? And a vote of yes is a vote for denial. So a yes is for a no.

Commissioners, please vote. Mr. Chairman, the motion passes by a vote of five to two.

This conditional use permit was denied and will go before city council on July 15th with our recommendation for denial. Moving on. Next item is conditional use permit request CUP 2026-00012, New Leaf Solar. Mr. Wine, will you please read that caption?

Yes, sir. Conditional use permits request CUP 2026-012, New Leaf Solar, submitted by Bill Lane, Old Myrtle Solar 1 LLC, applicant on behalf of Brandel Suffolk LLC, property owner, in accordance with Sections 31306, 31406, and 31724 of the Unified Development Ordinance to grant a conditional use permit to establish a solar energy facility on property located on Old Myrtle Road. Zoning Map 22, Parcel 3. The affected area is further identified as being located in the Holy Neck Voting Borough, Zoned A, Agricultural Zoning District. The 2045 Comprehensive Plan designates this area as being outside of the growth area. Rural Agricultural Land Use Type. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and recommendation to City Council relating to Conditional Use Permit CUP 2026012. Once again, our Land Use Planning Manager, Caitlin Aubin, will present staff's report.

Hi, good afternoon again. So this is another utility scale solar request conditional use permit, also on Old Myrtle Road, New Leaf Solar. This project's a little bit farther south of Pruden Boulevard, about 3.3 miles. Zoomed in a little there on the property map. This is a smaller property. It's about 44 acres in total size, and I've highlighted it in blue. It's near the intersection of Old Myrtle and White Drive, which turns into Tyler Drive as you go into the county or Route 608. It is designated as rural agriculture in the comp plan and is located outside of the growth area Like the previous project this project is also located fairly close to the Isle of Wight County line So once again, we did send notice to County administration. They did review this request and they had no comments for us. I This is an aerial showing the property. Again, highlighted in blue for you there. Property was used for silviculture, so this contains mature woods on the boundaries and then loblollies that have been seeded, raised, and then logged and intermitted. MEASURE. PROPERTY IS ZONED AGRICULTURAL AS IS EVERYTHING AROUND IT. YOU'LL SEE AGAIN IN AISLE OF WHITE IN THE REDDISH ORANGE THAT'S THE RURAL AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION DISTRICT AND THEN THE GRAY IS THE INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT. For what's around this property, again, this is a little bit smaller in scale. It's a smaller property. You have some single family homes, both on White Drive, as well as on Old Myrtle Road, along with some undeveloped wooded land and then cropland. So this is a smaller project, about three megawatts at full generation capacity. The equipment, along with the solar array, is going to be 12 water string inverters and a transformer all contained to a central pad. The facility itself out of that 44 ish total acres. It's gonna take about twenty six point four eight acres within the fenced area itself Like the previous project this was also submitted to the city prior to July 1st 2026 and is therefore not subject to again the amended state code Through those bills that were passed recently. So again subject to current video standards current state code and This is the applicant's sketch plan for the facility. So in the red, that's depicting where the solar array is going to be located. There's going to be a, and I'll zoom in on this so you guys can get a better view of it. Again, hard concrete apron drive on old Myrtle Road and then a gravel road that's going to traverse through up through the fenced area and then to the middle of the site where the central equipment pad is located. Property itself, again, does respect and adhere to those minimum setbacks from adjacent residential. Again, they're going to be utilizing mature woods on all four sides. to screen the facility from the public right-of-way and the adjacent homes. One condition we've included, and we have a visual and a couple of slides, this is closer to the road, and so where you could potentially see the facility from the entrance on Old Myrtle, we're requiring, as a condition of approval, agricultural-style fencing, which we've done for other projects. That's just to preserve the character of the area. This is a zoomed-in view, again, showing where the entrance drive is and then the gravel drive. What's showing kind of like a stipple hatch with little dots is there are some non-tidal wetlands, which the applicant is trying to not impact as much as possible. There's some very small impacts where the gravel drive is going to be. So pursuant to that with site plan, they'll do a full wetland delineation and mitigating any impacts. The point of interconnection is going to be at Old Myrtle Road, again, where those distribution lines are at the road. In accordance with UDO regulations, all infrastructure from that point of interconnection is going to have to be placed underground as it goes into the site. This is zoomed in just showing you where the string inverters and the transformer are on that central pad. For capacity under 5 megawatts, this is 3 megawatts, has to have a 400-foot setback. This does meet that setback as shown in the large purple circle. Applicant also provided us a graphic that depicts again preserving the mature wooded buffers on all four sides and then again similar to the other project this will be involving some reseeding and replacement of native grasses and vegetation as well under panel. The applicants provided us with some And photographs of, in this case, because they're using lighting mature trees, showing what this would look like. So this is standing on Old Myrtle, looking east, northeast, where the site entrance would be. And then what's shown in the white is where you would see the panels if it was clear, and then showing that that's going to be screened with existing vegetation. This is a view, if you're standing, what turns into Tyler Drive in the county, looking southeast. So there's the field, then the stand of trees, and then the solar facility's gonna be behind that stand of trees. This is at one of the adjacent properties on White Drive, looking east. So we have the property, and then behind the trees, you can kinda see to the back of the property, solar facility behind that. Duplicate picture, pardon me. Site entrance. What we did ask the applicants to do, because the site entrance isn't constructed, is if they could render and show, okay, once we install the gravel driveway, what it would look like up to the fence. The reason I put a red X over those overhead lines is we are not going to allow overhead lines past that point of interconnection on Old Myrtle, so this will have to be underground conduit through the site. This is a picture, again, on a white drive looking across the field, again, showing that mature wooded buffer across the street and screening from the right-of-way. Again, as I mentioned earlier, Old Myrtle Road is a truck-restricted route, so they are restricted to this specific haul route, which is conditioned as a condition of approval. The applicant cannot use Old Mill Road or White Tyler Drive Route 608 down from Windsor Boulevard. They have to go from Pruden and follow this route as attached to the ordinance. This is a smaller project, but again, there's still equipment involved, string inverters and a transformer. Again, we want to see what kind of noise is generated with that. So the applicant did produce a sound study where they measured the ambient noise and then modeled the expected noise from the string inverter. String inverters are a little quieter with that one transformer and have this contour map, which is produced. The light blue on the very edge, again, shows that 35 to 40 decibels staying within the property line. So this does comply with the noise ordinance and the unified development ordinance standards. Again, like all solar projects currently, a noise study is conditioned as part of any approval and once constructed would have to comply with this. So in sum, acknowledge that this is a smaller site and it is closer to adjacent residential homes. One of the reasons for that is, again, we're requesting as a condition of approval that agricultural fencing along the front of the site along Old Myrtle Road, again, if there's any line of sight at the entrance, making sure that that looks nice. This is, however, a smaller capacity in terms of both panel footprint and equipment with the one transformer and the 12-string inverters. This site does have pretty substantial mature wooded buffers, again, trees that have grown up that are going to screen the site. And then the 400-foot setback, which is a requirement in the Unified Development Ordinance to help mitigate inverter and transformer noise. So with that in mind, we have found that this particular application does comply with the criteria in the Unified Development Ordinance. And therefore, we are recommending approval subject to the conditions as proposed in the draft ordinance. Thank you so much for your time, you all. I will be around for questions should there be any after the public hearing. Thank you.

Thank you, Caitlin. We will now open the public hearing. Who would like to come forward and speak in favor of this conditional use permit? If you would, please give us your name and address, please, ma'am.

Good afternoon. My name's Jessie Robinson, 4705 Brentwood Road in Durham, North Carolina. So thanks for y'all's time today. My name's Jessie. I'm a senior project developer with New Leaf Energy. Here with me, if y'all have additional questions, will be our engineering consultant, Bill Lane, from Hurt and Profit. I have been developing projects for six years in Virginia. And my company, New Leaf Energy, has been developing projects for over 40 years. The company initially was formed by three brothers. And we've been developing projects across the nation. We've built a gigawatt. We've developed a gigawatt of solar projects to date. Like Caitlin said, the project proposed today is a three megawatt project that will participate in the shared solar program with Dominion Energy Territory. So this is a program designed by the state to make solar more accessible to folks who may not have land themselves to put solar on their land or if they live in an apartment, for example, and can't put it on the rooftop. So we build a project and then folks can subscribe and receive a savings on their electric bill, the main requirement is that you're a Dominion Energy bill user. and happy to answer more questions about that. We chose this site in particular for several reasons. We tried to be really intentional about where we site these projects. One, as Caitlin mentioned, this site has been used to date for timber. So the site has already been disturbed quite frequently for this use. And it also was replanted about five to seven years ago. So those trees have grown up and will help screen the project from day one. from any surrounding neighbors or from the road. It's also quite a small footprint, 26 acres fenced, or if you look at just the panel acreage, like what is actually underneath the panels in terms of coverage, it's about five acres since we have inter-row spacing. The majority of this site is not prime farmland. It's also quite flat, so that also lends itself to being well screened from surrounding areas. We're able to meet and exceed setback requirements from the road. We're at least 670 feet away from the road, our inverter. At a minimum, it's 400 feet from property lines, up to 960 feet in certain areas. And there's also the distribution infrastructure that we need located at this site to interconnect the project. And it's in Dominion Energy territory, which allows us to participate in the Shared Solar Program. In terms of community outreach, the city itself does not have requirements for holding a community meeting, but we find that it is important. We sent mailers out to 30 parcels surrounding this property and held two community meetings. Our outreach narrative with neighbors is included in our packet. We held our first community meeting in October of last year. There were six attendees. We held our second meeting in March of this year. There were three attendees. The second meeting was an opportunity for folks to ask more questions. At the first meeting, they had some pretty in-depth stormwater questions for us, so we were able to come back at the second meeting with a more fleshed-out stormwater design. Some commonly asked questions we receive from folks, including neighbors, about solar projects. One is, will there be an impact to groundwater or shallow wells in the area? We had a third party go on site. They studied the depth of groundwater, and this was incorporated into our stormwater design. So we are designing to meet the site to make sure that there will not be an increased amount of flow on surrounding properties once this project is built. Also, the EPA has standards for solar panels and what is allowed to be located in those components in terms of what might be deemed hazardous materials. The panels have to go through a toxicity characteristics leaching procedure, or T-CLIP. And they basically pulverized the panels and put them in an acid bath to simulate what it might be for 100 years of weathering over time. And it's to simulate also if those panels weren't noticed and didn't go fixed over time. So panels have to, they cannot leach a certain amount of chemicals in that test to be able to be used. on sites. And also with solar panels, I think a lot of times folks think there's like liquid located in the panels. That's not the case. The cells are solid and they're also very well protected. They're covered by tempered glass, which is designed to withstand hail, or extreme wind, and within that, the solar cells are vacuum sealed in a plastic matrix. So rain does not come in contact with the internal components. It's not like, yeah, the cells are touched by water and then it flows into the ground. I think that's a common misconception about solar projects. Another common question is, will it increase flooding to my house? So we looked at the flow of site on this property. It naturally drains, water naturally drains to the west and south, which is away from homes to the east, which where we received a lot of these questions. Even in a 100 year flood event, water would not flow back to houses in the east. Finally, we had another question we get is about property value, and we've had a third-party accounting firm called Kohn Resnick look at solar projects that have been built in Virginia. What was the sales price of homes before that project was built and after? And they looked at several in Virginia and the country, and they have found no impact on sales price of those surrounding homes. THIS PROJECT IS LOCATED IN THE RURAL AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION OF THE COMP PLAN. THIS PROJECT ITSELF TAKES UP .018% OF THAT AREA. It will help maintain the rural aesthetic by keeping the existing vegetation for the veg buffer We're meeting and exceeding property setbacks and the project is not visible from surrounding roads or properties the land is also protected from going into a housing development because Once this project is decommissioned it could go back to an ag use if the owner wishes and Timber it's not necessarily developed and going into a housing development, which I know is a common thing Y'all have seen in this area of the comp plan So I'll just close that the staff Found that this project is in compliance with the comp plan and recommends for approval. So I Believe the landowner Priscilla Taylor would like to come up share a few words Thank you very much

Please give us your name and address, please, ma'am.

Good afternoon. I'm Priscilla Taylor, and my address is 107 Bobby Jones Drive in Portsmouth, Virginia. And I am the loan shareholder for Brandel LLC. So I am Brandel LLC, the property owner, and I own the subject property. Quite a few years ago, my husband and I bought the property because he liked to hunt. and he envisioned this as a hunting property for himself. Right after our daughter graduated high school, my husband died unexpectedly, and with him the idea of the hunting sanctuary. I'm not a hunter. So when Jesse Robinson with New Leaf approached me about placing a solar farm, it just made a lot of sense. Because of the shape of the property, the solar farm would be tucked away and surrounded by large trees and vegetation, not to be visible or bother anyone. Once it's built, it won't increase traffic, it won't need any city services, and it will sit there and generate electricity. This property is not and has not been farmland, so I'm not taking farmland. It's been logged several times. And the solar project will generate power for 300 homes. And New Leaf has been very careful to design the project in accordance with the City of Suffolk specifications. But the main thing is I would never want to bother a neighbor. I wouldn't want to put something that would be disturbing to those because I wouldn't want it done unto me. For all these reasons, I ask that you please consider this project for what I think could be the greatest use, and I thank you for consideration of this project.

Thank you. Anyone else to speak in favor? We have just a few more minutes, or maybe less than a minute. Seeing none, is there anyone here who would like to speak in opposition? I'm going to ask you to give your name and address once again, sir.

Good afternoon. I'm Tony Bauer. Address is 4264 White Drive, Suffolk, Virginia. Thank you again. And we have quite a few members. I understand there was a low turnout originally, but that is not the case of concern. Just to throw some numbers. Zero. Zero. That's the decibel disturbance we currently have. Okay, zero. We don't have any decibel disturbance. Thirteen. If you look at that, it is surrounded completely on the west side, on its south side, and on its southeast side. by residential properties. The owners of those properties have all unanimously signed petitions that they do not want this, not to mention over 130 other community members directly associated with that borough. What you can't see in this diagram up here is there is the most beautiful church in Virginia on the corner of Old Myrtle and White Drive. Everybody knows it, Western Branch Baptist Church. It's 300 years old. I'm a deacon there. Up until June 1st, when I went to a deacon's meeting, none of the church knew and the pastor didn't know that this was taking place. And if you look at the drive entrance there, it's just on the other side of that. And I don't want to steal the thunder of some of my other community members. I may have already done that. But every single member of the church in the last two weeks has signed the petition that they do not want an access to this chain link fence or otherwise next to what we just spent over $300,000 on a refacement for that 300-year-old church. And I appreciate the fact the committee member took a drive down Old Myrtle Road. That is the most beautiful road and church. It may be rural, it may be rustic, but it's the most beautiful thing to us. Peace and tranquility. That's why we all invested anywhere from 300 to $1.7 million to live in the residences that surround the area I described, 350 to 1.7 million. Every survey I've seen says it will impact 2.8 and up to 5.1% of property value. That represents anywhere from 13 to $70,000 prop of property tax but not property tax and property value So I disagree with the property value comments with all due respect and only one more comment with all due respect to the owner of the LLC Her husband originally bought it to hunt on Our community is a hunting community. It's an outdoor property loving Community they hunt They love it. This just soaks up that much more of our area. Anyway, thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else here to speak in opposition? Please give your name and address, sir.

I'm Jimmy Smith. I'm the adjacent property owner at 6838 where this project will be going on on Old Myrtle Road. And I apologize. Here are the petitions with about 150 signatures, more from online. Every member of the church, the habitat that would be involved in everything is in this brochure as well as what I'm getting ready to speak about. So I'd like to have that each member look at, please. So in God's creation of this world, I do not believe his vision was for solar panels to replace his forest, animals, vegetations with solar panels. It appears to be water from the sky, so our migratory birds that come into this area will basically die. The woodcock, the snipe, the wood duck all migrate into this swamp. We as a nation are continually eroding our circle of life, and I take that because I'm a Westerner from Clint Eastwood. Our community is welcoming the bear, the deer, the turkey, the squirrel, the rabbit, and all the other species that we see daily in our backyard. This is our home and their home. The noise that we're talking about, it's going to be there for us because we're right on top of it. We're talking 12 families and a church that's going to be directly impacted by this project. And all members were not notified and did not receive letters. I'd like everyone that's in the area that's an adjacent homeowner or supporting us, I'd like for you to stand so the committee can see it because we were not notified a lot of people regardless of what they said. The first word the church heard come from my mouth speaking to them. I'm the retiree guy that's running the neighborhood, getting the petition signed and making people aware of what's going on because they didn't have a clue. We don't want to listen to this daily noise 365 days a year. This is going to be right in my backyard. The transmission lines are going to be less than 30 feet from my property. If they build up the road the way they're talking about for this entry, it will flood our homes. Regardless of your presentation, four-tenths of a mile on Old Myrtle Road, if you've driven out, that's farmland. All that water runs to the swamp between my home and Western Branch. I'm sure you're aware there's a swamp there, and on more than one occasion, there has been signs cautioning high water from flooding. When we get rain, all that water comes to the swamp. I'm the last house that's to break. If you build that up, all of that water is going to build up into our homes and our neighborhoods. It's nowhere for it to go. We're the family of Vincent, Smith, Ray, Holland, and Smith again, and we don't want the noise in our backyard. Just for instance, a fly is at four decibels. So just think what those solar panels will sound like. My wife can't sleep with a fly in the bedroom. Ambient temperature. of these solar panels on a 100-degree day, just like we just recently had, will reach between 145 and 163 degrees. And that's just right from Google. Wind speed can only reduce the temperature by 10 to 20 degrees. That's a lot of heat. This is going to be an isolated area. What if we have a fire? I've had two lightning strikes at my residence since I've lived there. What's the odds of another one? Probably pretty good. The environmental impacts, the habitat loss and fragmentation, the soil degradation, and my main concern is the water runoff and flooding. This is important to me. My residence receives approximately, like I said, a quarter of a mile of runoff every year, thousands and thousands of gallons. come down that hill, come into the swamp beyond my property. The church was not even identified and did not receive notification of this plan. I think that that's an understatement that they should have been notified. A large part of this property, I believe, is wetlands. I've hunted it when the Prestons owned it. I've walked every foot of it. From my property line or even before my property line to the church was always identified as wetlands. My adjacent property owner requested to enlarge his existing pond. It was denied because it was wetlands. and now we're talking about putting three retention ponds on this property that's lower than his property. Doesn't make sense. If the property access is built up, as shown, my home as well as other numerous homeowners will be affected by flood, impacting our quality of life, our septic systems that we never have problems with, and potential of our well water. My property line and where my well is located is 66 foot from where the development will start for the right of way for this access of property. If you build that up, it's going to come in my yard. There's no way around it. Like I said, thousands of gallons of water each year run to that swamp between my home and Western Branch Church. Like I said, impacting 12 family homes and a church. I just hope y'all will take that in consideration and deny. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Smith. Still have some time for opposition. Please give us your name and address, please, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Lisa Chavis Smith. My address is 6822 Old Myrtle Road. My property would be H, I believe, on the map, and I could stand at this podium today And you, sir, is where I will see a fence from my backyard, my property line. The issues that I have is that we had no idea. We had absolutely no idea. May 2nd, the property owner sent a letter out to neighbors, none on our street. On May 19th, my husband and I got an approval letter for our home. on old model road that has been a home, a family home for 30 something years. And we decided after eight years of long, hard thought that this is where we want it to be. This is our serenity. This is our peace on. And then one week later, we get a letter from the city that this has been going to be built in our backyard. I was very heartbreaking to me, property value. Having my home appraised three days prior to getting a letter that something drastic could come and change the value of that home was devastating to me. That's okay. The noise is an issue. We have an autistic son who is 16 years old. Noise is a trigger for him. Do you ever sit outside and hear the Zacchaeus at night and they make that noise? That is too much for him. That's natural. He will never be able to go and sit outside in our yard by the pool. And as he likes to say, no one disturb my peace because it will stay disturbed 24-7. He can't help his condition just like no one else here can. But it is as a parent to know that he enjoys sitting and watching the family of seven deer that we have every year come up in our yard, the rabbits, the hummingbirds, the squirrels, and the silence. That is therapy for him. That is therapy for me after working all day long and just sitting there. Every morning I have porch coffee. That's me, God, and coffee. I talk, I listen to the birds, and it's nice. It's quiet. I'm not opposed to, you know, doing things to help the environment and all of that. But this is a small area. Right down the street, two miles, you're wanting to put another one. And, you know, I just, I don't think that this was, I don't think this is a good idea. These forests, tall, thick forests that they have is as thick as this. That's not thick. You know, that's not thick at all. When the fall comes, there's no coverage. But, you know, as a lifelong yet new homeowner here, I just really pray that you guys do not allow this to go through. There's a lot more area than on Myrtle Road for this stuff in the city of Suffolk. And I don't want to regret making that my lifetime home here.

Thank you, ma'am. We have just about a minute left for any additional comments opposed to the project. We're down to about a minute, ma'am.

My name is Kelly Holland. I live at 6834 Old Myrtle Road. I'm directly affected by it as well. This area is our home where we seek rejuvenation after a long day. We're long-term residents of this area where we cherish the peace of country living. We enjoy sitting outside watching the animals and all things living that have also made their home here. The solar farm will be an eyesore. All of the things we love will be taken from us if the solar farm is approved. Help me understand how you can justify cutting down environmentally friendly trees to put in equipment that there is no safe way to dispose of, nor are long-term effects known. We are concerned about the fire hazard and the response time of the fire department to get here. I do know they catch on fire. One caught on fire across from my work in Chesapeake last summer. We're concerned about the constant noise. If we hear it, what is it going to do to our pets, which we all have? Their hearing is way more sensitive than ours. I plead with you to not approve this solar farm. We must as a community, as a people, to preserve the land and not constantly try to tear it down or build something on it. Our peace will be destroyed along with our sense of pride for the hard work we have all put in to make our home on this land. In the property owner's own words, I would never want to cause issues for our neighbors, so I ask her to do the right thing and not partner with the solar farm. and for her to reach out to her neighbors about keeping the land as a hunting refuge that her husband so desired. I'm also submitting from one of the neighbors who had to leave a letter that I don't think we have time for me to read.

No, ma'am, the time is up, but you can leave that. Thank you, Ms. Holland. Now we have five minutes for rebuttal. Is there any rebuttal?

Yes. First of all, I wanted to thank the community for sharing their feedback about this project. I definitely hear them. I heard concerns of seeing the project, hearing the project, water runoff. PROPERTY VALUE. THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT WE'VE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION WITH OUR APPLICATION AND ALSO THAT THE CITY HAS CONSIDERED IN THEIR ORDINANCE. THAT'S WHY THE ORDINANCE IS IN PLACE IS TO PROTECT THE CITIZENS BY SETTING REGULATIONS THAT DICTATE GOOD DEVELOPMENT. AND IF YOU CAN MEET THOSE REQUIREMENTS AND OR EXCEED THOSE REQUIREMENTS, A PROPERTY OWNER SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEVELOP THEIR PROPERTY AS THEY SEE AS A BEST USE. I will just address some information that was brought up by neighbors. A third-party noise study was completed on the site. It has found that the current ambient noise, just what it is right now with nothing out there, is 32 dBA. PROBABLY FROM NOISE FROM THE ROAD, THINGS LIKE THAT. THIS PROJECT WAS MEASURED TO HAVE 7 TO 24 DBA, SO DECIBELS, WITH THE INVERTERS AT THE PROPERTY LINE. SO THAT IS LESS THAN THE CURRENT EXISTING NOISE IN THE AREA. SO I UNDERSTAND YOU DON'T WANT TO BE ABLE TO HEAR THIS PROJECT. YOU WOULD NOT HEAR IT BASED ON THIS THIRD PARTY STUDY. Also, it's quite unfortunate to hear that the church did not receive outreach from us. We sent both letters. I double-checked my records just now. We sent both of our letters for the community meetings to the church. So it's definitely an unfortunate setting to hear their concerns for the first time. Mr. Bauer, I'm happy to meet with you after this meeting to see what we could try to do to address your concerns. But in closing, I'll state that the staff has found that this application is in compliance with the city ordinance. We are meeting and or exceeding the requirements. And again, the property owner should have the ability to develop if it is in line with the city. So thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone else who would like to offer any rebuttal? If not this public hearing, is this? No, sorry, that time's up. Thank you. Okay, this public hearing is closed. Commissioners, questions, comments, or motion will be in order.

I have a question for, I think, either Kevin or Mick. and come July 1, things are gonna change. If we deny and then the council just also denies, the developer then comes back or landowner comes back next year. They use the upcoming statutes, right?

Any application received After July 1 of this year would be subject to the new provisions Should this application was not received after that time, so it's under our current regulations Including our supplemental regulations that we have in the UDO is it really so certain setbacks as it relates to how we can apply those moving forward still to be determined and AS IT RELATES TO THAT STATE CODE PROVISION. THAT IS EFFECTIVE JULY 1.

I'M JUST WONDERING IF WHEN THEY REAPPLY, THEY REAPPLY UNDER THEY WOULD HAVE TO CHANGE THE PROJECT IN ORDER TO REAPPLY UNDER THE NEW STATE TERM?

They would submit whatever application they see fit. Should this get to city council and they deny it, there would be a one-year waiting period before they could reapply. At that point, we would consider whatever project they have submitted. As it relates to the supplemental regulations that we currently have in place, we do need to review those as it relates to that state code provision, particularly as it relates to setbacks.

Commissioners, questions?

Yes, sir. The developer. Is it Ms. Robinson? How you doing today? Hey. All right. So this is the one where the solar panels.

The solar program?

Yeah, it would connect into Dominion, right? Yep. Offhand, do you know how much a homeowner could possibly save if they subscribe to this program?

Around 10% to 20% on their electric bill. 10% to 20%? Yep.

and the rest of the people that did not subscribe, we just gonna take the hit or the increase or whatever Dominion decides to set the rate? That was just a comment, you don't have to answer that one. I don't want you to answer that one. So I guess this solar panel would be 300 homes that could possibly benefit from this?

There's more subscribers that we would seek for this project, closer to 400 to 600.

And you said apartments. You mentioned apartments, right? So they could subscribe and benefit from this also, right? Okay. And maybe you can answer this question also. Decommissioning. Have you ever decommissioned solar panels?

So there were two projects of ours that had to be decommissioned early. One was a rooftop project and it was designed with incorrect plans. So the roof couldn't actually handle the load of the panels. So before the project was completely finished, it was decommissioned. Those panels were, some went to like employees and they were able to be reused. And in another case, I don't remember the exact details, but again, the panels could be reused. After 40 years, a panel still has about 88% of efficiency on the panel. It's still operating. Say it's 100% day one. At 40 years, it's out 88%. So it could be used on a different project. or it could go to a landfill and be disposed of there, or as the previous applicant mentioned, recycling. Bedford County is getting a solar recycling facility. So that could be one place. You said landfill? That is one option. And I know some cities put regulations that it can't go there, for example. I mean, the preference is to be able to recycle it or really reuse it in a different project or location.

Access road. Yeah. Is there another entryway point or this is the only access road y'all considered or could you went off of another road to access this? I mean, why this particular spot?

Yeah, we did look at that. This parcel, it's the only road frontage it has. We looked at could we seek an easement from a neighbor to access that way? But then we learned that we're in study with Dominion Energy, and once you're in study, you cannot change your point of interconnection more than two poles away. And two poles away would not help with accessing the site differently. So we couldn't change our road.

Okay. Now, with this access road, because it's in between a house and this church, So, I mean, you have to do maintenance on these solar panels, correct?

Yeah, typically once a month is when we would send people out.

And they'll be going on this access road. Right.

Yep, this access road is the current road. That's what it's been used for, like, logging as well by companies for tree clearing.

All right, yep. Thank you. Okay.

Commissioners, any questions?

Yes. Based on the concerns of the citizens, you may be seated. Based on the concerns of the citizens, and we just not approved one. I don't see us approving this one. So I don't see why we're going to spend a lot of time. And so I make a motion that we do not approve CUP 2260012.

That's a motion to deny. Is there a second? It's been moved and a second. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll call for the vote. Once again, a yes is a no. Commissioners, please vote. Mr. Chairman, the motion passes by a vote of seven to zero. This conditional use permit was denied and will go before City Council on July the 15th with our recommendation for denial. I'd like to thank everybody for coming and voicing your opinions today. Moving on down the line, Mr. Wine, is there any old business?

I WOULDN'T CALL IT OLD BUSINESS, BUT IT WAS DISCUSSED LAST MONTH. SO WE WANTED TO TAKE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL THE PLANNING COMMISSION TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE PLANNING 101 REZONING PROCESS VIDEO THAT WE POSTED ON OUR WEBSITE. I KNOW IT'S BEEN A LONG MEETING, BUT IT'S A QUICK THREE-MINUTE VIDEO, AND WE WANTED TO share that with you all. And for those watching at home and the public that are here today, this is hopefully the first in a series of videos that help kind of explain the process as it relates to land use in the city to really, really make it as easy as possible to understand. So if you're pursuing a project, you have kind of a firm foundation on what to expect. So with that being said, we can go and roll.

When a property owner wants to improve, build on, or develop their land in the City of Suffolk, they must abide by the zoning and development regulations that apply to their property. These regulations can be found in Suffolk's Unified Development Ordinance. If existing zoning does not permit the use the owner wants, they can request a rezoning. A rezoning, or map amendment, is the legislative process of changing the zoning district on the city's official zoning map so the property can be used in a different way. Most of the time, a rezoning in Suffolk is submitted by the property owner a contract purchaser with the owner's written consent, or the owner's authorized agent. The request must meet the criteria and procedures set forth in the Unified Development Ordinance and the Code of Virginia. Mary owns a property in Suffolk and wants to develop it as a coffee shop with apartments above, but her property is not in a zoning district that allows that use. Her first step is to meet with City of Suffolk staff for a pre-submittal meeting. These meetings have representatives from across the city who will be available to answer questions and provide Mary with important information and feedback on what would best fit her needs and help make her proposal feasible. During this pre-submittal meeting, no official decision is made. It simply allows Mary an opportunity to become familiar with the rezoning process and become familiar with aspects of her application that will need to be carefully considered. Based on that discussion, Mary selects a zoning district that could work for her proposed use, such as B2, General Commercial, or CBD, Central Business District. She then submits a completed rezoning application to the city. Planning staff review the application for completeness to ensure all required materials are provided so that city staff can evaluate the request appropriately. Staff then review Mary's rezoning request considering factors such as whether the proposed zoning is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan, the character of surrounding properties, community needs, and the proposal's impact to public facilities like schools, roads, water and sewer, and emergency services. Generally, City staff will have several rounds of comments before an application is ready to be considered by the Planning Commission and City Council. This can take several months or longer depending on the request. Once Mary answers all outstanding questions, staff prepare a report with a recommendation based on their evaluation of the application and present it to Suffolk's Planning Commission, which will consider the staff's recommendation. Prior to the Planning Commission meeting where Mary's application will be considered, notice of the request is published in a local newspaper, posted at the subject property, and sent to property owners that adjoin Mary's property to inform the public and to advertise the date of a public meeting held by the Planning Commission. At that meeting, community members may make comments in support of or against the rezoning request. Once the public comment period is over, the Planning Commission will discuss the case and make a recommendation to the Suffolk City Council. The Planning Commission's role is to provide the City Council with informed recommendations on land use proposals prior to the City Council making its final decision. Before City Council reviews and acts on Mary's rezoning request, public notice of the Council's public hearing is provided. This includes updating the sign posted on the property with the Council's public hearing date and publishing a notice in the newspaper. Mary's request is then considered by the city council at a zoning public hearing, where the council votes to either approve, deny, or defer the request. If council approves the rezoning, the ordinance is adopted and recorded, and Mary's property is officially rezoned. She can then begin developing her idea into reality. You can learn more about Suffolk's land use regulations by visiting the city's Planning Division webpage or reviewing the Unified Development Ordinance online at www.suffolkva.us slash planning.

Good morning. What can I get started for you? A latte with oat milk, please. You got it.

Very good. Okay. Great job. We have a great, great media team.

Not to interrupt, but that was shown to the group, the meeting that we went to in Bennett's Creek, as part of the presentation by the city. So it's becoming popular, put it that way, and everybody enjoyed that because it is understandable. Thank you.

Very good. Moving on down, status report, city council meeting, May 20th, 26th.

Yes, sir. That was quite a meeting. We had six public hearings in total. I'm not going to walk through all of them. Really specifically, we had the Hillpoint Trace low-income housing tax credit project up in Hillpoint, the Jonathan's Way rezoning project, They're off of Godwin, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Shoulders Hill Road, the Parole Office on Dill Road that will house the existing Suffolk Parole Office, the U-Haul on Pruden Boulevard, and the Precious Metal Pond to go over in the West Suffolk Shopping Center right down the road. All of those were approved by City Council. The rezonings with the proffers are submitted and the CUPs with the conditions recommended by staff.

Thank you, Kevin. We have no preliminary plats that have been approved. So moving on, we're down to the commissioner's comments. So I will start over here to the right, to my right.

Yes, I received some troubling news the other day about a certain person leaving and no longer being our chairman. But I would like to tell him it had been a pleasure working with you for the time that I have worked with you. Thank you very much.

Ditto comment, Mills. You're a great community servant. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Moving on along.

I'll try to be brief. All right, thank you for your comments. You know, the past two weeks have been kind of rough. I just want to mention a couple of people's names. attended a memorial service for my 35-year-old cousin that passed away from breast cancer. La Serena Ms. Poo Jackson, you will be missed. We also lost a faithful servant taken away from us at a very young age, Dewan Stegall. You know, we're gonna push forth on HB 392 on the sickle cell trait for early detection and education. We lost him just very young. Another tragic incident that happened a couple days ago down in Rockdale County, we lost a firefighter in the line of duty. The fire engine truck overturned TRAPPING THIS VERY YOUNG 26-YEAR-OLD SOUL. WARREN SMITH, I JUST WANT TO SAY YOUR NAME. MY PRAYERS GO OUT TO YOUR DAD, DEACON SMITH, AND DEACONESS SMITH, AND TO YOUR SISTER, DOMINIC SMITH, AND TO THE GREATER PINEY GROVE LEADERSHIP, REV. WILLIAM FLIPPIN, my heart goes out to this young man. So it's been a rough two weeks for me. Um, and the last thing, and this is rough for me too, Miles, I'm going to miss you. You know, um, the inspiration that you have led us as being the chairman, um, you had big shoes to fill and, uh, You gave me strength when I came on to planning commissions. So I'm going to miss you. And the next person that's the chairman, we're going to beat him down for you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Next down the road.

I WANTED TO THANK THE PLANNING STAFF. I THOUGHT THE PRESENTATIONS TODAY WERE EXCELLENT. VERY ARTICULATE. EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN'T ALL GET APPROVED, I JUST WANT TO SAY CLASS ACT. I'M CONTINUALLY IMPRESSED WITH SUFFOLK'S DILIGENCE WITH WORKING WITH APPLICANTS AND JUST TOP NOTCH. Mills, you're such a great leader, and I appreciate the classiness with which you monitor our meetings, and I think just the way you carry yourself, and you don't even have to hush people up because they know it's no nonsense when they come up to the podium, and just we're going to miss you, but I will see you around Suffolk.

Thank you very much. Next in line.

Well, when Mills called each one of us the other day, it was a shock. But I did prepare something, and it will be very brief.

I rule you out of order, sir.

As brief as I can be. We appreciate the leadership Mills has shown in his role serving Suffolk. Having been born and raised here, he's brought a valuable, historic, perspective to present and future planning for the city. His service has enriched and impacted Suffolk in many ways. His friendships are generational, and I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him as well as form a friendship with him. In his years of service, he's been a dedicated friend to Suffolk and its citizens, sharing his wisdom and desire to do his best. I wish you a happy and fulfilling retirement from the commission with more time to enjoy your family and friends and your model airplanes.

Thank you, sir. Vice Chairman.

What Barr said about the staff today, you guys did a really excellent job. And the public really needs to hear that a lot of work goes into them finally saying we recommend approval for us to say deny. And I kind of feel sorry for you guys when we do deny a project because I go through the project and it is worthy of approval. But we have to... sometimes juggle what the community is actually saying to us, and so we have to vote against you. But your work is phenomenal, and it is actually getting better, Kevin, you should know. Also, meals. We came on together, guys, and I feel like you're leaving me. We have worked well together. You made me study harder because you came in with me and you came in like roaring and like a lion and knowing so much. And I'm like, I ain't know so much. I don't understand. We went to school together, went to class together. How he know so much more than me? So you made me study, sir. So thank you for that. I guess that means we have to make ourselves be prepared to move on without you, but come and visit us every once in a while. Last but not least, happy Juneteenth to those of you who celebrated with me.

Thank you. Well, I guess it's my turn now. I will make just a comment. I didn't comment during the public hearings, but Kevin and I get together with the vice-chairman prior to the meetings, and we did discuss in some detail what the state is doing to us. I consider Kevin and the staff, we probably have the best UDO that addresses the solar issues. I know we started off and stumbled a little bit at the first, and we were all learning as we went along, but the commissioners and the staff over a period of time really beefed up that to where I'm very concerned that the state and their action in taking away the, it looks like some of the things that we have put as restrictions on these solar farms is going to go out to wonder possibly. So I ask you to stay up with that. I won't be here to herd you along, but Obviously, there is a time and place for everything, and apparently, like today, I wish some of the state House of Delegates and the Senate had been here to listen to the comments that were made by the citizens of our city today. And that's after staff had gone through and really beat these projects up to make them meet the criteria for approval under IUDO. So I just wanted to say that thanks to the city staff. I asked Kevin to ask you to stay because I wanted, if you would, if you're an employee of the city in the planning department, I'd ask you to please stand. Guys, I appreciate everything you've done for my 11 years here. Some of you haven't been here that long. It's been kind of a few changing seats as we've taken place, including this seat right here. Kevin, were you here when I came 11 years ago? You were, I believe. I believe he was doing most of what you did today. When I came in. Ten years ago, so I would have missed that by one year. Yeah, so Kevin's been here for a long time. So basically, thank you so much for your support. We can't do anything up here without your hard work. And I know we kind of slapped you down a little bit today, but that happens. And that's the reason we're here. We kind of are to listen to the citizens. You do what the city and what the UDO says. And then we listen to the citizens. And we do listen to the citizens. Sometimes I think people don't believe that we do. And then the great thing about that is the fact we don't make the final decision. It goes to city council. So with our recommendation one way or the other. I'd like to point out especially Kevin, Meg,

Katina.

We can't do anything without containers. So with that, I appreciate Councilman Rector putting up with me for, I guess we went on the Planning Commission 11 years ago. So he got elevated and I decided to move on. So as I step down from this commission, I do so with complete confidence in this commission's future. The talent and commitment around this dais are unmatched. and I can't wait to see the accomplishments you achieve next. So thank you for your support over the last 11 years. It's been a pleasure to serve with each and every one of you, and I will miss you. Thank you.