Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

turn on. I guess the September 16, 2025 meeting of the Suffach Planning Commission will come to order. Um, I'd like to thank each and every one of you uh for attending today. Uh we value very much your opinions on the items that we'll be considering today. Uh I call on Commissioner Selena Thornton Manuel for invocation. Start off today word for today is peace. The word peace can be defined as a state of tranquility or quiet, a state or period of mutual concord between governments, harmony in personal relations, freedom from civil disturbance. John 14:27 tells us, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Let us pray. Lord, on today we pay we pray for peace. Peace in our homes, workplace, schools, and over our minds and hearts. Grant us peace and unity throughout the nations and our great city. Show us how to be peacemakers. Allow us to remain peaceful in our disagreements for you are the prince of peace. Amen.

Amen. Mr. Wine, will you call the role? Yes, sir. Commissioner Bower here. Commissioner Creekmore here. Commissioner Edwards. Commissioner Goodman. Commissioner Pal here. Commissioner Thornton Emanuel here, Vice Chairman Hicks here, and Chairman Staylor here. Uh, Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much. Um, we have several items on our agenda today, some that may take a little bit longer than others. So, in the interest of the citizens, um I'm going to ask for a motion to move uh the um agenda item B to be in front of agenda item A. So, could we have chairman? I move. It's been mo moved for the approval. Second. Been moved and second. Uh can we have a voice vote? Uh voice vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I I opposed. No.

Uh motion carries. So with that we will we will move on to u the public hearings. Um this meeting is videotaped and televised for public viewing. Um public hearings are for 30 minutes, 10 minutes for the proponents, 15 minutes for the opponents, 5 minutes for the rebuttal by the uh proponents. Let me see. Got to move my agenda around a little bit. Um, the first item on the agenda as modified is exception request CEX 20225-000010 1621 Holly Point Lane. Mr. Wine, will you read the caption?

Yes, sir, I will. Exception request CEX 2025 010621 Holly Point Lane submitted by James A. Moore, applicant and property owner on behalf of Jane H. more property owner in accordance with section 31415 of the unified development ordinance to grant an exception to the development criteria and buffer area requirements of the Chesapeake Bay preservation area to permit an expansion of an existing septic drain field area within the resource protection area buffer on property located at 1621 Holly Point Lane zoning map for parcel 9E. The area is further uh the affected area is further identified as being located in the Chuckatuk voting bureau zoned RL residential low density zoning district. The 2045 comprehensive plan designates this area as being outside of the growth area rural conservation land use type. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution for a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area exception request for property located at 1621 Holly Point Lane, zoning map for parcel 9E, account number 25172400, CEX 20 2500. Our assistant director of planning, Meg Pittinger, will walk you through staff's report on this one. Thank you, Kevin. Good afternoon, uh, chairman, members of the planning commission. Um, I'm going to present this case to you. Um, as Kevin indicated, this is at 1671 Holly Point Lane. The property is located outside of the growth areas. Um, the applicant is requesting an exception from the Chesake Bay regulations to encroach in the 100 foot resource protection area buffer for

upgrades to the existing septic drain field. The purpose of the request is to fix what the applicant states is to be a failing septic system. The lot was platted prior to the effective date of the Chesake Bay Preservation Area Regulations. The single family home was built in 1955. The current residential structure on the property is located within the 100 ft RPA buffer. The proposed location of the drain field is within the RPA buffer and thus that is why we are here today. The health department has approved the location of the septic t system and based on the topography and the soil conditions. The proposed location is the only suitable location for the drain field to be installed. Uh almost you can see on the plat here almost the entire property is located within the 100t RPA buffer and only a small portion of the front yard is located outside of the buffer. The applicant is proposing to disturb just over 2500 square feet within the buffer. Uh the drain field will be installed in the rear yard. You can see in kind of that hatched area um on the drawing there. Uh the applicant is proposing to mitigate this encroachment of the drain field as well as all the total land disturbance associated with the installation to include the construction access path again that you can see kind of in that hatched area coming from the road. The applicant has submitted a minor qu water quality impact assessment that includes proposed mitigation for the encroachment within the RPA buffer. The plan proposes seven planting units of vegetation which will be proposed thus far seven red maple trees, 14 dog woods, and 21 wild hydrangeas. Uh this plan um does comply with the requirements of the buffer mitigation manual. Uh staff has proposed four conditions. Should you uh recommend the approval, should you approve this application? Um which will involve also

um doing the mitigation, not encroaching any further with any other structures um and not removing any vegetation. With that, staff does recommend approval with the conditions and I will stand by the conclusion of public hearing for any questions that you may have. Thank you, Meg. Uh, we will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone in attendance that would like to speak in favor of the item? Uh, please give us your name and address if you would be so kind.

Good afternoon, chairman, vice chairman, commissioners. My name is Brian Lane. I'm a um I'm here on uh behalf of as an agent on behalf of the owner today who's also present with us. And if I've I've done a lot of these and if anything checks the boxes for why the ordinance is written the way it is. This this is a prime example of of what it was intended to do. Uh you have a a resident that has been constructed legally on a legally created lot prior to the uh buffer ordinance. uh that's a little egregious to what he wants to do now. And what I mean by that is he has a failing septic system and where the septic system is proposed is the only place that can be placed. Um it's it's a lot of mitigation that's required on a lot like this. I don't know if anyone has had a chance to drive by it. Uh but we've gone back and forth with uh staff who was very pleasant to work with and we know we have to work with them to plant these trees. Uh the owner is aware of all of the conditions and he agrees to them. There's not a whole lot more I can add to this one. Uh but if you do have any questions, I'm here to answer them the best I can. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lane. Is there anyone else in attendance that would like to speak on behalf of this proposal? Any anyone else here would like to speak in favor? If not, is there anyone here that would like to speak in opposition to this item? I see none. Um, uh, would you like to make any additional comments, Mr. Lane? Okay. Commissioners questions, comments, or motion is, uh, we need to close public hearing. We close public hearing. Commissioners questions, comments, or motion is in order. I make a motion to approve exception request CEX2025-010 with the recommending conditions that I have a motion and a second. Um is there any questions? Uh anyone have any questions? If not, we'll take a vote. Um Kevin Commissioners, please vote.

Mr. Chairman, the motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. Um, this item has been approved and there is no city council action required. So, you're you're good to go. Moving on, we'll now uh handle public hearing uh A on your agenda. Um, reszoning requests RFZN 2025-00004. Um, Mr. Wine, you read the caption.

Yes, sir. Reszoning request RZN 2025004 conditional Riverbend 171802 North Main Street. Submitted by Adam Edbau, applicant on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Economic Development Authority of the City of Suffach property owners in accordance with sections 31304 and 31305 of the Unified Development Ordinance to reszone and amend the official zoning map of the city of Suffach to change the zoning from B2 general commercial zoning district to RU18 residential urban 18 conditional zoning district. uh to add conditions for a parcel zoned MUD, mixeduse development overlay district, and to apply conditions to a portion of property zoned B2, general commercial zoning district for property located at 171802 North Main Street. Zoning map 25, parcels 45A and 45E and zoning map 26E, parcel FARG, star PT star J. The affected areas further identified as being located in the Suffach Voting Bureau, zoned B2, general commercial zoning district, mixeduse development overlay district, and Scott special corridor overlay district zoning district. The 2045 comprehensive plan designates this area as part of the central growth area, multifamily neighborhood, and commercial corridor land use type. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and a recommendation to city council relating to resoning request RZN 2025004. Uh staff planner Gonzalo Bourge will present staff's report and um after he is done uh speaking and introducing you all to the profers, he'll turn it over to our interim deputy city manager Gary Jones who will walk you through some of the CIP implications with one of those

profers.

Thank you, Kevin. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and planning commissioners. This resoning request before you today is to reszone and amend the official zoning map of the city of Suffach to change the zoning from B2 general commercial zoning district to RU18 residential urban 18 conditional zoning district to amend and uh to amend the conditions for a parcel zone MUD as well mixeduse development overlay district and to apply conditions to a portion of property zone B2 general commercial zoning district for a property located at 17 uh 1,700 and 8 1,8002 North Main Street. Zoning map 25, parcels 45A, 45E and zoning map 26E, parcel FGPTJ. The affected area is further identified as being located in the Suffach voting borrow zone B2 general commercial zoning district mixed use develop overlay district and Scott special corridor overlay district zoning district. The 2045 comprehensive plan designates this area as part of the central growth area multifamily neighborhood and commercial corridor land use types. The subject properties have the following agescent land uses at Nort the Oichi meridian apartments a grocery store in various commercial uses zone MUD mixeduse development overlay district as well as wetlands zone RL residential low zoning district to the south there is a Barton 4 car dealership restaurants and other commercial use uses zone B2 general commercial district at East there is the Nman River and single family detached dwellings zone

RLM residential low medium district. And finally to the west of the subject property there are single family detached units, restaurants, offices and commercial businesses zone B2 general commercial district and a single family detached dwellings zone RLM residential low medium district. The applicant is proposing to conditionally reszone 72.2 acres of the subject properties from B2 general commercial zoning district to RU18 residential urban 18 conditional zoning district. Some sections at the south of and northeast of the pro the subject property tax maps 2545A and 26EGPTJ are to remain as B2 general commercial district as seen on the slide. These remaining areas will allow for commercial and office uses to be established in the western and southern ends of the property in the vicinity of the historic office building and will also allow for a commercial use at the northeast end of the property along the Nanceman River. Tax map 2545E at the southwest corner of the property will remain zone MUD mixeduse development. This parcel as proposed would allow for 1.3 acre of public park and to serve as a secondary access road to for the Meridian OBG site as well as for the proposed RU8 residential neighborhood. The proposed development includes a maximum of 497 residential units. 168 units are age restricted and therefore limited to residents age 55 and older. 329 units are single family attached units, also commonly referred as town homes. These town homes can be

broken down into 204tory backto-back units, 75 threestory front load units and 54 threestory front load units. This would yield a gross density of approximately 13.7 dwelling units per acre, which is below the maximum 18 dwelling units per acre that are allowed in the RU18 zoning district. The proposed development also includes several amenities for its residents and the public. This conceptual master plan before you today shows a 1.3 acre public park in the western section of the subject property, a system of trails, greens, and parks throughout the development, a small marina, a boardwalk, a public boat launch, and an event space, as well as a residential clubhouse and pool in the eastern B2 section of the subject property. The applicant will convey the existing V dot historic office building and the surrounding 2.3 acres of property located in the western B2 area to the city of SUFFK in lie of providing a cash contribution towards school projects. This building will be preserved and located within the general commercial and office portion of the development. The proposed development offers also a dense and diverse set of housing options that are compatible with the existing housing offered within the main street corridor and within other mixed use developments in the vicinity of the subject property. The variety of scales and configurations of housing in of housing in is an important feature of the proposed development because it aligns with the 2045 comprehensive plan. This is evident in the proposed multifamily age restricted housing and also in the densifying collection of four and threetory single family attached units. As previously mentioned, the proposed development includes the preservation of a historic office building and retains a portion of the site to be developed as commercial, thus offering a certain degree of mixed use

that is compatible with the surrounding areas it uses. It is also important to emphasize that the proposed conceptual master plan also offers a spatial and land use transition from commercial and institutional office uses to a medium to high density residential use from North Street towards the Nanceman River. Simultaneously, the proposed development includes a reasonable walkable layout that interconnects the residential units to several surrounding open or public spaces, amenities, as well as as to other commercial and institutional uses along North Main Street. With regards to access and transportation, the proposed development offers a medium to high density housing options to an area where transportation corridors and infrastructure such as North Main Street, Route 32, Buzz, Business 460, Highway 58, and uh US 58 uh business are already established. The proposed mixeduse development envisioned to consist of the 497 residential units, multiple office buildings, and a high turnover restaurant use is expected to generate 5,257 daily vehicular trips with 515 of those trips occurring during the morning peak hour and 535 occurring at the uh afternoon peak hour. With this being said, it is important to highlight that the site currently consists of 89 acres that are zone B2, general commercial. The B2 district allows for a matter of right a larger variety of high turnover retail, restaurant, service, and office uses that generate vehicular vehicular traffic at high rates. Based on a developable acreage and its location along North Main Street commercial corridor, the site could reasonably be developed as a retail shopping center consisting of 3,760,000

square ft. A use of this nature would generate 15,861 daily vehicle trips or 10,64 more trips than the currently proposed use. The applicant has profered five conditions in support of this request. The first profer limits the development to 497 residential units to be constructed within the RU zone uh zone portion of the property. The profer also states that 168 units will be age restricted and limited to residents age 55 and or older and 329 units will be single family attached town home units. The second profer commits the applicant to develop the property in substantial conformance with the arch architectural elevations included in the pattern book dated July 11th, 2025 prepared by land planning solutions. The third profer requires the applicant to make road improvements as outlined in the traffic impact assessment prepared by VHB dated August 13, 2025. The fourth profer binds the applicant to convey the existing historic office building and the surrounding approximately 2.3 acres of the property to the city within 30 days of subdivision plat approval. This will be done in lie of school cash contribution that is typically offered throughout voluntary profer for these types of applications. The fifth profer pledged the applicant and the economic development authority to complete a maintenance agreement for the common space for the 6.6 6 acres of B2 zone property ages to the north main street. I will now temporarily hand over this presentation to Mr. Gary Jones, interim's deputy city manager. Mr. Jones will speak about the historic building and the school profers. Mr. Jones, the stage is yours.

Thank you for the stage, Mr. Bourge. Uh good to Mr. Chair, vice chair, members of the commission. As Mr. board stated the uh 2.3 acres along with the VOTE or former VOTE administration building will be profered uh to the city for the purpose of repurposing it for a school administration building. But before I get into that, let me give you a little background on where they are today as a result as it stands as the school administration is located in the professional building and talk about some of the issues they're having there. uh the building they're in. One second. I think he's going to pull up a couple slides here. As he's doing that, the building they're currently in at 100 uh North Main Street um is a 28,000 square foot sixstory facility that you're aware of. Uh 23,000 of that is actually leasable space that they're using. The original lease for that building was initiated in 2003 when that building was renovated with historic tax credits. Uh that that ran uh that 10ear lease ran from 2003 to 2013 um to satisfy the historic tax credit requirements. At the end of that initial lease, the property was sold to Global Realy and the city has since uh initiated three five-year uh leases which the current lease will end on December 31st, 2028. Uh it goes without saying that SUFFK schools has outgrown this facility of uh 28,000 square feet which brings us to the 2.3 acre profer which includes the former VOTE administration building uh to be used for a uh for the school administration building. That building is 39,000 square feet of total space. Uh it was originally built in the 1940s. Uh it was expanded twice once in the 1960s and

then one in once in the 1990s. It was vacated by VOTE in 2018. Currently in the current CIP, there is a project for a new school administration building which uh proposes $22 million to be set aside for uh that new school administration building. The majority of that funding is funded in the out years. It's supposed to be funded in the out years of fiscal years 31 through 35. Uh the fact that it is out there in those years, it competes with a lot of other school administration uh school projects. Those being uh Kilby Shores Elementary, Forest Glenn uh middle school, Nansman Parkway Elementary, Nman River High School, and John Yates Middle School. some of the cost estimates for the buildout. There we go. There. Here comes my slides. Let's get to where we are here. Okay. some of the estimates to build out uh the 2.3 acre site which includes the the OV administration building. Uh we're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 to $175 per square foot which will give us a 5.8 to 6.8 million proposed construction of the building and then an additional half million to threequarters of a million dollars for uh site work to to accommodate that. what we're looking to do, uh, we presented to the school board on last talk last Thursday the 11th. Um, and what we're looking to do is get, um, some level of, uh, their thoughts on this proposal. Uh, and then prior to after getting their thoughts on the proposal, we look to go to the city

council uh, proposing the city council um, meeting on the 15th of October. So, with that, I'll be glad to take any questions, but I will turn it back over to Mr. uh boards at this time. Let me just get back to the slides where I was at or I have help. That's what's happening. All right, that's Yeah, that's the right one. Oh, no. The one before slide before right there. Yeah. There we go. in this uh pardon. All right, there we go. In this sequence uh sequence of slides uh I will show you the elevations that are being profered as part of uh this application. On this first slide uh to the left we have the active adult uh condos. So the apartment buildings on the top left uh and to the right and the bottom right we have the front load uh town homes on this slide we have the rear load town homes that have garages in the back and also a very nice balcony seems to me. Uh slide number eight there's one we have the backtoback town homes as well. So those are the elevations that are

being profered as part of the the application and I wanted to show that to you uh because it is important to look at them and have an idea of what it's being proposed with regards to the recommendation in some staff finds this proposal resoning request RZN 2025004 conditional meets the intent of the provisions of the 2045 comprehensive plan and of the unified development ordinance. The proposed resoning from B2 general commercial district to RU18 residential urban 18 conditional zoning district aligns with the goals and objectives of the 2045 comprehensive plan which encourages increased density balance between residential and non-residential uses and mixed use districts constitu uh constituing a variety of land uses for the subject property and its vicinity. The proposed development also offers both a reasonable balanced and diverse collection of residential dwelling units and commercial spaces. The addition of 168 age restricted units for seniors uh and 329 single family attached units combined with the inclusion of and preservation of green spaces, trails, public amenities and uh the preservation of the office office building along North Main Street is suitable for the urban context surrounding the subject. property. The proposed characteristics also coincide with recent housing and commercial trends within the more dense and urbanized areas of our city as well as within the Hampton Roads region in general where demand for senior housing and different price ranges uh for homes is continuously uh increasing and also the demand is also increasing. The applicant is also pledging to directly mitigate for expected traffic impacts as well as mitigate for school impacts by

conveying the historic office building to the city. Therefore, staff recommends approval of res uh reszoning request RZN 2025004. This concludes my presentation. I will stand by for any questions. Thank you.

You will go in. Thank you very much. Uh we'll now open the public hearing. Um just as a reminder, public hearings are for 30 minutes, 10 minutes for the proponents, 15 minutes for the opponents, and five minutes for the rebuttal by the proponents. Um come uh who would like to come forward and speak in favor of this proposal? If you would please give your name and address. Hello. Uh name is Adam Medbower, 556 Rivergate Road, Chesapeake, Virginia. Um good afternoon, uh commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. Um our entire team's here, Melissa, Grady, Karen, uh Buddy, Annie, Charlie, and and Gre Greg here. Um it's truly an honor to stand before you and share the journey that we've taken over the past year uh to come to this point to present to you and designing this proposal. This project is about responsible growth and creative collaboration in order to do what's right for the people, community, and the future of Suffach. We have worked very closely with city planning staff, um local leader leaders, and most importantly, uh the residents. We reviewed public comments from past proposals, read all 86 comments sent to staff, and reviewed their u their their concerns, listened to residents at our outreach event, and even had on-site tours on the facility. Nearly everyone's voices in this room has helped shape this proposal, and for that, I'm I'm proud. First, I will address uh comments that came from conversations at our public meeting in which neighbors across the water who treasure their view and their peaceful uh surroundings. We heard them. After that meeting, we flew drones, studied sightelines with our engineers, and found that outside the marina and

the restaurant, this redevelopment and design will preserve what they love the most. In fact, I have a handout to help illustrate the preserved viewshed. I think you guys have it. be handed out and available for you guys. We also through all of that heard strong desire for public water access for the citizens. That's why we include open space, a park, amenities that invite everybody in. This isn't a gated development. Um it's a shared space for all. When it came to schools, we asked what does Suffach need right now and how can we help? The answer was clear and again reinforced at the September 11th school board meeting. Their top priorities are the school administration building, new schools and expansions and all those need to happen now, not later. So, uh, we collaborated and created a creative solution knowing that new school administration building was has been a top priority and is currently budgeted in the capital improvement plan. We're profiting that historic Virginia Department of Ed of Transportation Administration building to the city of Suffach at no cost, thus letting the city repurpose it as a new school administration building, reducing the budget needed, as you just saw on the slides, by an estimated $15 million. That's real impact today for our children and for SuffK's future and for top priorities that you that need to be addressed, freeing up MI millions for those top priority projects like um the elementary school expansion, which in a school board meeting last week, it was estimated that an expansion of the elementary school would cost between 15 and $19 million. So, this donation directly frees up nearly all the funds needed to start a project like that right now. And for some context, this development is projected to add 60 elementary students.

And if you really look at the real life numbers of other mixeduse developments with this type of product and um those are significantly lower as we'll talk about in a little bit. This is a smart community-driven solution and not a bad trade for a project that also brings homes, jobs, public water access, tax revenue. This is a real value for SUFFK. Another tops concern was traffic and rightfully so. We've worked hard with VOTE, our traffic engineers to design a comprehensive plan that truly focus on safety and connectivity. We're investing over $2 million in traffic improvements, which our engineers will describe in more detail. Some also have asked, why not make this a park? And I understand that. Um, however, evaluating and converting this site would cost tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money and doesn't align with the city's comprehensive plan or its vision. What we're proposing brings life, uh, beauty and purpose back to a space that's been forgotten for decades while preserving 100-year-old trees that are beautiful out there. Existing tree buffers, transforming a long neglected industrial site into a vibrant, inclusive neighborhood. This isn't just smart planning. it thoughtful, responsible growth. In total, we're creating 497 homes, aiding in public school improvements, adding meaningful public access to the riverfront and community that reflects SuffK values. It's not perfect. No plan ever is. Um, but this is a very, very good plan built with care, creativity, and collaboration. Thank you for your time and your service and commitment to our city. We're proud of this proposal and we're here to keep listening, improving, and building something truly special. Thank you.

Thank you, Adam. Is there anyone uh else who'd like to speak in favor of this uh proposal? Just to let you know, we have about a little over four minutes left.

I know it keeps running. It keeps running. We're trying to have a representative for the the actual property owner as well come up. So, I'm going to move along as quickly as I can, but I think we just wasted 20 minutes. My name is Melissa Vanibal. I have a office here in Suffach and I also live in Suffk um 5857 Harborview Boulevard. I have been I've had the great opportunity to work in the city of Suffach for 20 years 22 years now. I have worked on the site multiple times and took note to concern concerns that were heard during the OBC resoning hearings. This knowledge along with public opinion and city concerns has influenced the design you're looking at today. The 2035 comp plan noted this property to be core support and the most recent comp plan calls for multif family/mixuse on this site. In both cases, the max density called for much more than what we're proposing. From Main Street, looking into the site, you see mature trees and at the distance, an existing multi-story building. What you don't see from Main Street, and I think this is very important, is all the paved area, several abandoned buildings, partially used building, and trailers, and storage of a hundred or more vehicular um um service vehicles that are on site. Also, surprisingly, there is only one small disturbed area that allows us to access the water or the Nansen River behind the site. The remainder of the waterfront property is preserved and will continue to be protected with this proposal. Without a reasonzoning, the existing B2 site, which Mr. Borges had had touched upon could be developed with big box retail or even mixed use um similar to uh Bridgeport or the Gallery at Godwin which is the retail on the first floor commercial on the first floor residential above that's all within B2 sites. So if you took the calculations from the net density, which is about 36 acres on this site, times approximately

18 dwelling units per acre being somewhat conservative, that's 650 multifamily units that could be built by right today if you were to do a mixeduse mixeduse building type site. And I just point that out to understand that there's there's a lot of opportunities and options today as it sits as B2. Our proposal balances redevelopment with preservation of nearly 35 acres of wooded area uh wooded area and marsh that will remain untouched. The small portion of disturbed area will provide access to the water um so we can have what we showed on the plan a boardwalk boat slips um and a planned possible restaurant area. This can be enjoyed by both the public and residents of this community. In our research, we also learned that there was a desire for a public park amenity and gathering space and our current our client listened and adapt adapted that our master plan to include those wishes. The the plan reflects a beautiful park along Main Street with the mature trees that you see today. This this park as well as the admin building that we're hoping to preserve will hide the neighborhood um from Main Street and it it'll be out of sight just like the industrial uses today. As it relates to traffic, as recent as 2018, this site had nearly 400 employees. In 2018, 250 of those employees relocated, leaving about a 100 employees there today. Karen McFersonson, our traffic consultant, is here today to answer more detailed questions. But in short, redevelopment of the site without resoning could create about three times more traffic than the current proposal. The resoning offers off-site improvements to increase safety and decrease the number of ingress egress points onto Main Street. Further, we cannot forget that Godwin Boulevard north of the site is under design for expansion. Once completed, this will greatly improve the traffic bottleneck that occurs north of this site um on Godwin Boulevard. We know for certain that this site also will function better

as a mixeduse project with interconnectivity to the adjacent property. The cross access to Memorial Drive will provide this project with access to multiple intersections along Main Street and help to disperse traffic. Further, the proximity of proposed residential to the existing commercial sites will recre will create a more walkable environment, decreasing the number of vehicle trips daily. As it relates to schools, we know for certain that mixeduse developments um projects like the point and Hampton Roads crossing generate much less school age children than our suburban residential neighborhoods. But due to the ordinance regulations, we use the ordinance numbers on this project. But again, we feel certain that similar to those other mixeduse sites, we'll have a decrease in school age children uh just because of the urban nature of of the development. Good planning and development should support urban growth within the urban center of our city rather than growth expanding into our rural areas. Growth near some of our age shopping centers can revitalize Main Street and make it a more vibrant shopping and dining destination. For my 22 years in SU Suffk, I know this has been a top priority and I believe that a project like this can be a catalyst to continuing positive redevelopment near our downtown. I kindly ask for your support. I'd also ask if we could just expand our time a little bit just from the back and forth so that Buddy can come up and speak just for a second because I know we just ran out of time. Oh, also these um if we could distribute these that would be helpful. I believe Adam had um usually there's an officer here. Um, thank you for your presentation. We you will have a five minute rebuttal point that maybe you can add some additional time at that.

Okay. Um, can I can I provide these?

Certainly. Yeah. Okay. Um, now's the time uh that anyone who is attendance that would like to speak in opposition um please come forward. Give us your name and your address. U anyone here to speak in opposition? Good afternoon. My name is Beth Cross. I'm with the Nansman River Preservation Alliance. We are at 8881 Eclipse Drive in Suffach, Virginia. Um, good afternoon, chair and commission members. I just wanted to point out that um the Riverbend development offers a a great um focus on maintaining the marshlands. Um and for us as a river preservation alliance um we are very excited about the opportunity for access at um this end of the river which we have not had for years. Um so we we just want to bring to the attention of the the city of Suffk um the consideration that this could be or enhance the ex accessibility for our citizens and to possibly expand um the idea of the natural waterfront resources that they have planned not as much on the waterfront area but the surrounding area. 1.3 acres as a park is not a lot when you're talking about over 500 new

developments. Um, and we know that there are Boers that will be waiting to put their boat in the water with such an opportunity. That is wonderful. Um, but we do also recognize that large boats driving through residential areas can often cause um, serious problems. And so the consideration of expanding um the access to the marina and both a park area that fits better with a um with a high density location would be great for our city. It would also provide more of a recreational, you know, kind of center point. We've already invested a lot in Constance Wararf Park. We have great kayaks there, but there's nowhere to kayak. we could easily start to create a river trail um if we have a destination location um that offers more space and more opportunity for our residents. So, thank you for that consideration and thank you for boat access at this end of the river.

Thank you, Miss Gra. Is there anyone else here to speak in opposition? Good afternoon, commission. My name is Jeff Payne. I reside at 120 Northgate Lane. Commuting in Russia is a problem in Suffukk. The traffic survey submitted by the Ryan Holmes group classifies the level of service at the Constance Warf and Main Street Junction as level of surface E. Well, I think it's as in high school E is unsatisfactory. The next level down is Fail. The report also states that by 2030, by their analysis, this junction will reach grade FAL. That's in five years time. But in the report, they're kind enough to say that don't worry about that. They can improve the signalization and make the problem disappear. I submitted a letter to you, so you should all have it in your package, which will detail exactly the numbers I'm going to give you. Back in 2014, when OBC Place was developed and approved, the traffic at Constants and Main Street was measured at 3,157 vehicles per hour going in all four directions. Back then, Kimley Horn made the same claim. Don't worry about the excess traffic. Improved signalization will take care of the problem. Clearly, they were wrong.

Please have the traffic specialists for Ryan Holmes explain how their survey shows a total of 3,185 vehicles per hour in 2025, which is only 28 vehicles per hour more than we had 11 years ago. Well, we know that's not true. So, we need some explanations here. We're dealing with something that can't be correct. We can all see with our own eyes. There's a lot more traffic now than there was 11 years ago. If the tra if these numbers are suspect, then the whole traffic study is suspect and should not be accepted. Ryan are asking you to approve gridlock on Main Street and out on Route 10. Commuters and downtown businesses owners deserve better than that. Main Street also fails to meet VOTE recommended standards in many ways. None of these failures of standard is mentioned in the traffic report. Traffic lights are already too close together and yet they want to add another one. Traffic lights too close together impede traffic flow and create backlog. Lane widths for the amount of traffic on Main Street are too narrow. Narrow lanes make more accidents and more traffic holdups. Left turn lanes on Main Street, everywhere you look, at Lowe's, at Walmart, at Constants, are not big enough to hold the amount of traffic that wants to turn left. So, we

get backups into the main through traffic, creating more problems, more potential accidents. And if you want a sandwich at lunchtime and you want to go to Chick-fil-A, you know, their traffic line backs up into Main Street. Main Street cannot handle the amount of traffic it has right now. At the same time, we're developing the 460 warehouse complex with a major interchange to be built. And based on our experience with 58 West, that's going to take five years with enormous traffic holdups. That's going to impact Main Street at the same time as this product will be project will be developed if you approve it. Chaos awaits us. Route 17 is a major problem. Nansom Parkway is a major problem. Just two days ago, I was trying to make a meeting from coming from Northern Suffuk downtown and I was late for the meeting because coming down King's Highway to try and avoid Route 17. I got to Chuck where we meet Route 10, it took me 15 minutes to make a lefthand turn because the number of vehicles in front of me. 15 minutes because there's so much traffic going each way. We know the the problems in front of the hospital. What happens when we have a an accident on the bypass and everything funnels through downtown? Everything gridlocks main street between Elephants Fork and Constants. There's no escape route. There's one road with no side roads to get out. We just gridlock the city. And then what happens when we have an emergency requirement? We have a bomb scare somewhere. We have a shooting. We

have whatever. How are the emergency services going to get there efficiently? We are just creating chaos. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Payne. Is anyone else would like to speak in opposition to this project? Anyone else would like to speak in opposition? Looks like there's no one here to speak in opposition. Um, we will now go to the rebuttal period. Um, you have five minutes uh for rebuttal. Please give us your name and address, please. Um, good afternoon. I'm Cara McFersonson with VHP. We are the traffic uh engineer for record. Um uh we reside at 4500 Main Street in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I did want to note that the data used for this intersection traffic counts were collected in May of 2022. And I can understand the gentleman's concern that he reflected back on what the traffic volumes were in 2014. I will tell you, I have been doing this a long time. Five o'clock today looks like five o'clock 10 years ago and five o'clock 20 years ago because a saturated intersection can only process so much traffic. So it is very common that when you do new counts which is what the city of Suffach asked us to do the counts are very similar. So I did want to share that we did uh do our analysis on new data. The other thing about traffic lights, there are a lot of traffic lights on this corridor. Traffic lights do a lot of things. This

one is for safety and access in and out of the facility. I will say when you're looking at a corridor of Main Street, it's not just about moving cars. It's about safety. It's about multimmodal pedestrian access. It's about creating a safe environment. So there's always a balance between getting vehicles to and from as fast as they want and balancing. So I I want to acknowledge his his comments, but also give you a little bit additional information. And I'll be on standby if there's any additional comments. Thank you very much. Still have a few minutes left for rebuttal.

Name and address, please.

Sir, my name is James Goodwin. I live at 11:09 Long Street Lane in Suffach. Uh I've lived there uh a little over 20 years. I've lived in Suffach my entire life and I've worked in Suffach my entire life. I've only been with VOTE actually for about six years now, but I've worked in downtown Soc. Um I'm just here to say that u VOTE feels like and I feel like as a citizen that this is a good move for the city. Um, VOTE's very excited and as we all are or should be about the repurposing of the original admin building there at VOTE. Uh, we feel like that it's a good idea that and glad that the city is uh actually thinking about doing so. Uh, I just think this is a good pro project to be had in the city and I think it'll be work out real well with the admin building being turned into the new uh, school board office. Uh, VOTE has had been on the property since the 40s and we've had uh as many as close to 500 employees that worked on that property up until the early 2000s when the city of Suffach took over the roads. Currently, we're still using most of the buildings on the property and we have roughly around 100 employees there. But we do have employees throughout the district up to 900 employees that work in the district that are on and off of that property daily. Uh and we'll be moving to uh that whole location will be moving to the Northgate Industrial Park uh soon as we get finished construction that we're doing right now. So that's all I have to say. I'll be available for any questions if you have any. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. James. Any any further rebuttal? Anyone else like to speak in rebuttal? If not, we will close the public hearing. Uh commiss commissioners questions, comments or motion is in order.

Uh yes, uh chairman. Um what what is our position today uh of of moving forward with taking a vote on this? What what are what are options? um um our um city attorney, I did speak with him about that. We have a couple of options. One, we can vote for approval. Um and if it is approved, it would go to city council for their I think it's October 15th meeting. Uh we could vote denial and we would send this forward with a recommendation for denial at that same meeting, October 15th. We also could uh entertain a a delay. Um I believe it's up to 100 days, but we could delay it for 30 to 60 days. Uh the public hearing is closed, so it would not allow for additional public comment. Uh but we could delay it before it is is sent forward to our city council. Is that correct?

Yes. Anyone have anyone have any questions of the folks that appeared today? I I do have a question of clarification if we could something that maybe I overlooked, but uh according to what Melissa told us, it's currently zoned as B2, correct? Which means that a Bridgeport type of facility can be put there right now without going through the same process. Am I correct in in understanding what you said? Melissa, could you come forward? I don't want you to get too comfortable. Yeah, don't get too comfortable. You might want to stay for just a second.

No, I I wasn't sure if Kevin was going to jump in. That's why I delayed. So, anything that zone B2 in the city of Suffach allows for a mixed building mixeduse. Um, not not mixed use where you had like like what we're proposing commercial up front, residential behind, but the buildings can be mixed. I'm probably using the wrong terminology, forgive me, but the buildings can have commercial retail on the first floor or like the Gallery at Godwin, which has a parking facility and retail on the first floor with residential above. That's a B2 zone site. And like Bridgeport, all of that site has some of those out parcels up front that are that are um fast casual or I think there's a car wash or the the larger buildings all have commercial on the first floor, whether they're offices, restaurants, and um residential above. That's a B2z zoned property that didn't go through any type of resoning at all as far as I know. Um, I think maybe some of the active or some of the rear properties or rear parcels did eventually go through zoning, but what we see today that's built that's all as B2 property is that

and what you were saying from a B2 perspective that they can put over 600 plus.

Yeah. So, I used a fairly conservative number for fourstory multif family with commercial on the first floor. I used 18 dwelling units per acre. Um, and I also subtracted out the critical acres. So, I was basing that upon, and it's a lot of calculations that it's easier to look at on paper, but so I was making a couple assumptions. The site's 88 acres. I I only assumed 36 of those acres would be developed as a mixed use, right? So, 36 times 18 gives you about 648 650 if if I remember correctly, if I'm doing the math correctly. So, that's a very conservative number that I threw out there. 650 is a lot of units. Um, but I think that's a very feasible, very possible thing that could potentially be done similarly to to Bridgeport.

And that's in comparison to the 497 that Right. Right. Exactly. And then the 497 also as you say it has profers, has conditions, has um required traffic impact or um profer Yeah. traffic impact um improvements. Sorry. So you'd have you'd have several improvements that come along with that as well as the other um list of profers. But if it's by right, you don't get those list of profers. You'd still have to do um on-site improvements and then turn improvements required for the site, but not not the amount of improvements that we would be that we're proposing with this um resoning.

Does that make sense? It does. Thank you for clarifying. Is there anything else? Um, while uh she is at the podium, is there anyone else that has any questions of of her?

Karen, um, it could also be a BJ's, right? Yeah, it could as I guess I'm asking that because now I'm going to get to what would be the difference in the traffic if it stayed B2 and some other monstrous building.

Right. That's a great question because it was one of the many comments that came is, hey, we, you know, we could use Home Depot or better clothing stores. Um, and there was a couple other big box type things mentioned. So, if we had and and I think Karen noted this, Adam mentioned it too. If this site was were developed as B2 with a large box retail and I'm gonna ask Kevin a question in the middle of that. There's no limit on the size of retail building for B2. Like we we're not under 150,000 square feet for a single building. I I don't think so, but I just don't want to speak.

So with a large box retail, um it was estimated that there would be about three times as much traffic in and out of the site. So I think the number the max number was five I should have Karen come up 5,000 trips per day and if it was big big box retail developed as B2 commercial be about 15,000 vehicle trips per day. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions while she's still at the podium? commissioners.

I have one is pretty minimal, but um one of the uh kind of flagship things was u I've heard a couple times by the applicant um public water access. Um there's not a guarantee of any boat ramp. I feel like when we did our site visit, we touched on that and also boat slips. Um I know all that's relying on a um Army Corps engineers study etc and all that. Um so I just not sure how much is in the proposal is been ironed out and um I believe also you're talking about the neighbors across did weren't they against there being public boat traffic there?

So I don't want to say that they were against it. A lot of the at our public meeting in July um do you mind if I a lot of a lot of folks from across the way um came out with this real fear and understandably so that we were going to take all the trees down and they were going to see this huge development and then they were going to have all this what we heard multiple times is there's a wake zone there. I have not ever been in the water there so I can't I can't speak from experience. I can only speak from what I was told. There's a wake zone there and they when when boats go through that area too quickly, it causes disruption to their docks um and their a lot of those homes across the waterway have docks out into the water. So, if the boats go too quickly um it disturbs their their docks um so there's a wake zone for a reason. It's to keep the boats going slowly, but I guess there's a decent amount of traffic that goes over to Constants Swarf. Um, so there's the Great Balancing Act. We want to be able to provide access to the water, public access to the water. The road that goes back to that red building that's on the screen. That's a public roadway. We want to invite citizens to come back there. Kind of hope that they have kayaks. Um, we hope that we can create a restaurant in that spa space, but you're exactly right, Miss Bower. We have to get permits to be able to disturb that area. So, we didn't we didn't we don't have a real detailed plan. We do show a boat ramp. We hope that boat ramp can be used for our citizens, but also it could be similar to decoys where you can pay to put your boat into the water. We're not going to open this to free public boating boating, but thank goodness um you all the city have and I don't I can't speak to this project too much, but maybe Kevin had Kevin. You purchased the Brady's Marina and I think developing plans for Am I allowed to Uh we are currently actively working on plans for a uh boat ramp at Brady's

Marina.

Okay, that's great news. So So when we heard about that, we were able to pull back on this a little bit for a couple reasons. One, we don't want to create additional disturbance along the water in that particular location, but we had to we had to be able to provide public access in that location. We wanted to provide public access in that location while still maintaining a residential community. So, it's it's a balancing act and we think we did a pretty okay job. Um, we have some boat slips, we have the boat ramp to what extent we're going to be able to expand that that that we'll figure that out as we go through final engineering plans and we get our army corps permits and things like that. Does that make sense? Similar again and and I had the um privilege to work on the decoys project. So, it's it's kind of this little bit of back and forth of how much disturbance. Um, there's some remediation that would have to take place and then you kind of come up with the final plan. But, we feel confident that there'll be boat slips there, there'll be um access to the water there, and there'll be some type of boat ramp.

I had a question for the trap. Thank you. Um, I'm glad to hear you say kayaks because I don't think trailering boats down Main Street and turning in and out of neighborhoods is a safe idea because I work across the street. But, um, can I ask the traffic engineer question? Certainly. Okay. Who who did you the tra or not engineer traffic? Sorry.

Um, don't want to harp on this too much, but um, I didn't see in the right and if I if it's there and I missed it, I apologize. Um uh anything I saw a lot about the traffic study, but any um I don't see anyone here from like public or sorry um emergency responders or concern. I think it was a fair point brought up about um I wish we could pull up on a GIS um overlay like of where that location is because it truly is water on both sides. Um there are not like other ways to get out. So, was that part of the traffic study of like that many residents there um getting emergency vehicles in there? I mean, I don't know if that was part of it or not.

So, two things. One, um I I will say the access management on the front of this. We spent a lot of time with the city traffic engineers relative to signal spacing, providing two points of access. So, that is the primary access. You also have an exclusive right in and the connectivity to the adjacent property provides multiple ways for fire and rescue to get in, but we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what was the best location to provide access. And then it was required from a signal. So coming in and out of it, you know, on on Main Street, there's the median part, which is where we will have a southbound dedicated left that will turn in at a signal. And that middle lane, the five lane section no longer will be that, you know, who's turning left, that center turn lane. So all the lefts into this site will now be in a dedicated lane at the signal. It'll have an emergency vehicle preeemption in and out, but the multiple accesses will come in the dedicated right, which is between our main entrance and the Ford dealership, and we have cross access to the property to the north.

Thanks. You're welcome. to elaborate that uh on that just a little further. Um we work closely with our um fire department as it relates to the development review process. Um so they've been heavily involved in this from the beginning. Um ultimately this site does provide two separate accesses. Uh so that does meet minimum requirements as it relates to fire access. Any other questions for anyone?

Got a couple of comments. Um, you know, this is a very uh this is very interesting and and and certainly a project that would affect a lot of things and we've heard a lot about um the effect it may have when you're adding that many u uh new uh buildings uh and new um uh places for people to stay. It does affect traffic. It certainly affects the schools and um whenever we may have to make a decision on reszoning uh to me uh resoning I always focus on the roads in schools. How do you how do you get from point A to point B? And also the schools and um you know in listening to the comments uh there were a number of comments which we appreciate the comments that came in the letters that came in uh about this project and uh anytime we get as much uh information as we can uh we appreciate that. Um, and we encourage people to to uh to give us the information how you're thinking, all that sort of thing. But to me, uh, the roads, the roads, the transportation part of it. Uh, we've talked about, um, we've gotten a lot of information about that. We talked about the school um school situation and the profer of the donation of the existing former VOTE admin building certainly is positive. Uh but to me it does not address the specific needs that the school system has. Now let me tell you we are not the school board. There was a meeting of the school board uh on the 11th. Uh Gary I think you were there made a presentation. I think there were number of people there from the city that that presented information uh to the school board. This was last

Thursday. Um my understanding is that the that we are waiting for Gary, you might want to address this. Um we are waiting or the city is awaiting some sort of an agreement in writing from the school board about this particular issue about the building. And I think you know not to address this is to me the elephant in the room about this thing because uh it does impact a number of things. It it it uh affects the capital improvement plan. Um particularly because in the capital improvement plan um we have already addressed we will have addressed a number of things down the road uh financially about a new school administration building in a different location and also the schools that will have to uh be um u either rebuilt or uh added to the school the the particular schools and we're talking about two schools schools in that area right now that are overcrowded. Um, obviously this is going to take a while, you know, for the buildout and all that that sort of thing. Uh, depending on on where we are, you know, in the future. But the thing that that bothered me most of all about that was is that the money um from the schools that would be going to the schools, this would have a this would have an impact um about the school admin administration building and it certainly has an impact uh with this development. Uh so Gary, do you have any comments about that?

Sure. I'll just reiterate what I said earlier. You are correct in that the school administration building the proposed new school administration building is addressed in the CIP currently and as as I stated earlier it's uh the majority of the funding for that and is forecasted as a $22 million school administration building is forecasted in the out years of uh fiscal years 31 through 35 and as I stated before there's a lot of other competition for schools going on at that time as it comes from the priority list from SUFFK schools Um but um this the this school administration building that's been proposed for VOTE is a potential that uh it could address some immediate needs that the school administration has right now with space needs in the current professional building that uh uh they have right now. But but yes, you are you are correct. There's there's a project down the line in the pipeline for the school administration building and that is in our year. So

Okay. Thank you very much. Um, you know, based on that, if we are in a situation right now where where we are waiting to hear from the school board, I know there was recommendations that came as a result of that meeting last Thursday, four days ago, four business days ago. Um, there are things that are going on uh that to me would affect whatever decision we make here. Um, so I think that getting back to the options that we have, I think that what we should do is uh to table this thing for another 30 days. I would that would be my motion to table it for 30 days if that's appropriate. Um, if you could actually put a the date of the next meeting in your motion because it may not be exactly 30 days and so that would mean we'd have to call a special meeting. So that should be October 14th, I believe.

21st. 21st. 21st. All right. So the motion would be to wait until till our next meeting, which would be the 21st. Okay. Table it until October the 21st. There's a motion on the floor that we table the action on this uh to the uh October 21st meeting. Uh is there a second to the motion? I have a question. Chairman, um before we move forward with that motion, uh I have some uh questions I want to ask of u Ryan Holmes. We Yeah, we need a motion to move to move forward, then we can have questions. Okay, got it. Got it.

So, is there a second to the motion? I second the motion with uh okay tableabling to October 21st. Okay. There's a motion on the floor to uh table this for approximately 30 days to October the 21st meeting. Um is there any questions? Discussion. Discussion. Yes. Clarification from Jones because because Mr. um Craigmore suggested that we are waiting for school board approval and I need clarification there.

I'll clarify that. Yes. At the school board meeting on last Thursday the 11th, what uh the interim city manager at the time left with the school board was a request uh in some form, whatever that form is, uh of their position on moving forward with the VOTE property as potentially a school administration building. So, okay. We just want their position. They don't approve. That's correct. Okay. I got you. She asked the question that I was Go ahead. Yeah. Oh, was that the same question? Yeah, same question. Okay. Are there any other questions dealing with tableabling the motion? So, what are we tableing it for? I question. What are we tableabling it for?

30 days basically to It will not approve. It will not be a public hearing, but this would allow, I presume, us the opportunity for the school board to react to the request from uh the city at their uh September 11th meeting. Okay. So, we just want to hear from them. Okay. Um any other comment on that?

I the only thing I I I don't know whether this would clear it up. The only thing that bothers me about this is that to me, and it may not be, you know, amongst the other uh fellow commissioners, but to me, this is a large part of of this project. And until we get the information about and it impacts the finances of this project, um until we get that information um from the school board, uh I don't know how we can we can further it along um to city council. I mean, city council is also um I'm I'm sure they'll be asking the same questions, similar questions as as we have. But in any event, um again, that's that's why my concern is we want to give them time to be able to respond to the city. Um and they've already been given all this information that we have been over u last Thursday. And uh I'm I don't think that the city has received any uh response at all uh from them as a result of that. So, it gives them another 30 days to respond. If not, then we'll have to go from there. Any other comment? If not, I won't make a few.

I was I was waiting on my friend from sleeping hole. I was being very patient. Um I I do appreciate the caution and um getting a response from the school board. Um but sometimes in life absent you being absent speaks very loudly.

Um the school board did not think enough of us to come and address their concerns. They do not come and ask us to give them more time to make the approval because at the end of the day per the um slides their desire is to speak to city council. So at the end of the day uh we are job our job is to deal with land use issues and the question is should this piece of property be um B2 or to be RU8 and is that consistent with the new 2045 comprehensive plan? how the city wants to handle the um schoolboard building and the city and school board deal with that. Again, that's another side. Um the question at hand for us is should this piece of property be resone from B2 to RU? Now, um dealing with the um overall schools, I do have a question before we table this vote for 30 more days. um in the current configurations um of the school system and I ask this citywide uh what is the um levels of seating availability citywide on the elementary, middle school and high school levels in the terms of what we call capacity

overall overall

um I do not have uh that information um available um citywide uh for for this school year. Uh we look at impacts at the time of development application at the schools directly impacted. Sure. Um but up until last year, I I do know that um the the school district over a period of of 10 years was relatively stagnant systemwide. Okay. um they increased, if I'm not mistaken, uh from about 14,300 students to um about 145 um over that 10-year period. Um and that was with the approval of roughly new uh roughly 7,000 new um cos for residential development.

And let me ask you this question. um in the CIP and the pipeline and I know that the um school board um put together their list of priorities. Uh when is the next elementary school going to be built um in the pipeline? Uh currently they are um undergoing upgrades uh through an expansion at Northern Shores Elementary School. That's an active project. How many seats? Um do not know the number of seats associated with that. Um then their next priority as I believe they discussed at their meeting on September 11th was a replacement for Elephants Fork.

Elephants Fork. So, and to make sure I understand because it it wasn't was it wasn't um outlined in the U staff report, but the children if they are children that are populated to go to this in this development, what school would they attend? Uh, presently this property is zoned for Hillpoint Elementary School.

Let me ask a second question. And you said Elephants Fork is in the pipeline going forward and the children are going to Hillpoint. Let me ask you a question. If a bus turned right on Main Street and traveled and went through that fork by the old Mike Dummans and going to Hill Point, would the bus have to pass Elephant's Fork to get to Hill Point?

That's correct. So, we're making an argument about schools when kids who will go to this school will have to pass an elementary school to go to the school they're zoned to. Then the question is we don't know the overall zoning of the elementary schools when we're doing an addition in the northern end that could roughly give us 200 to 300 more seats. If there then is let's say a 300 seat des um deficit citywide and you build an expansion we don't have a desk um a deficit if you reszone properly we don't have a capacity problem if you do that on the middle school level we probably get the numbers we don't have a capacity problem if we do on the high school level with Kings Fork and Nancy River even if according to Mr. Jones, you do the um Nancy River expansion at $15 million and give us four more seats. Add that to the 500 seats you have at Lakeland. We don't have a capacity problem. What we have in Suffukk is a resoning problem and that is the elephant in the room that Suffach doesn't want to deal with. We don't have a problem. I've been in suffer since 1981 and I was here when they closed down. John F. Kennedy, John Yates, Suffuk High, Forest Glenn and we all got busted. I grew up on Capitol Street and I went to school and and drive up. Booger T was round the street. Kids that live in Parkeric and Cypress Mana are being busted elephants for some of them going as far as southwestern. We don't have a capacity problem. We have a reasonzoning problem. And all of the fire and and the reason I brought up 1981 when we all got busted all over the city cuz I started out on North Road. Some of y'all don't know South and live here. Where you going northro I went to Mount Zion. I went to travel

bite them apples. But I say this, and the reason that I say this is by 1992, my whole community, everybody moved out and everybody on my street moved up to Northern Suffuk. So again, we didn't have population growth when we built all these new houses and new kids. What you had was a population shift. So a seat in school A shifted up to a seat in seat B. and now school B is crowded but now um school A has more capacity. If you would have did a resoning, you wouldn't have had this problem. So I I I understand the traffic problem. I understand the school problem and I understand that we wait on the school board to make a decision on if they want a building. I to me this is my opinion. I think that's a decision for city council to make together with the school board. decision that we're to make today is if we're going to reszone a piece of property from B2 to RU um 18. And based off all the information I seen and again I'm a child of the 2035 comprehensive plan. That plan I kind of understand this plan is new. One of the things that touched me in the 2045 plan was that this new comprehensive plan was supposed to give us more predictability of what was going to be on a piece of property. Cuz when you had the old use districts like core support, this piece of property could have been a many different things. Now we have tailored it down. It can only be multifamily um use district right here. So what has been designed and what has been proposed is exactly what was predicted in the comprehensive plan. The decision and the

discussion of the of the planning commission is to decide is this consistent with the comprehensive plan and per the comprehensive plan and the predictability standards multif family was supposed to be here that doing something within the parameters of multif family. Are you zoning is appropriate? What more are we talking about? And at the end of the day, if we want to deal with the building, the school board and city council are the elected officials. We are the adviserss and our decision is if this should be reszoned. Are you 18 or not? How they other stuff? That's why they're elected. and the people were to decide if they agree or disagree with their decisions. I don't stand before the people. I stand for the comprehensive plan and I want an argument on the comprehensive plan why we need 30 more days and not with a discussion with the school board or the city council. Not yet for

Thank you for your comments. Any other comments, chairman? Chairman, I do. chairman. I I do um maybe I need I need clarity from uh uh Mr. Jones here. Now, the VOTE building and this Ryan Holmes project is a package deal. It can't be separated, right? It can't be one or the other.

Well, let me let me say it this way. One of the one of the key components of the um development of this property, especially as it relates to uh doing the school administration building in a timely method that could meet some uh current deadlines that are in the in the existing lease professional building. This th this particular project will look to seek uh taking advantage of historic tax credits being that this will be a historic property. In order to do that, that would be a a deal that have to be worked out between the EDA and the developer on some type of a long-term lease agreement, lease to purchase agreement um that will make this deal work. Uh the advantage of that is that it would get the school board into a new administration building sooner than what's outlined in the CIP, which is out in the 20 3031 2031 2035 uh time frame.

So, let me ask this question. So, This this this is a package deal. V do and the and Ryan Holmes. So just hypothetically speaking, what if the school board says no, we're not moving into this VOTE building. What are the other plans for this building?

Well, if that's the case, then we have a CIP that we can move forward with. The current CIP is in that's in the in the mix would have to be looked at then. So, we still back to uh B2, right? Because in the the front part of this development, there is a uh area for B2 that's not even part of this um resoning. Correct. Yes. Just understand. Correct. The VOTE site uh the building itself not being a part of the resoning,

the front part of the B voting that's in the very front. on on Main Street. There's a part of land that's B2 that's not part of this resoning. Um there is a portion and you can see it up on this map here. Um the the reddish pinkish portions are being preserved as B2 as they exist. Um there are conditions associated with this resoning that would apply to them. Um but they are um going to be reserved for B2 general commercial use not residential. All right. Um

can we call I guess they can ask him anything.

This is uh Adam again with the applicant. Uh to answer the question about is this a is this a package deal? um when going through with planning staff u there is a a cash profer uh that that was calculated uh that we we can do instead of of the building. We thought that there was a lot more advantages uh to the city after working with you guys as far as freeing up that larger amount that 15 million in the capital improvement plan uh to be able to put other high priorities and expansions in schools. But if that does happen and school board doesn't want it for whatever reason, which they did make very clear in September 11th meeting that this is a high priority and they want it now and fast because of the conditions that they're currently in in the in the building and that the delay and the way it's currently laid out would potentially put them in another extension to the the half million dollar a year lease in the building that is not functional for them. So they want the building. they just needed more clarity and sounded like they had more questions and follow up for the city council. But again, even if that doesn't happen, we we can revert to the cash prof. And again, this like you pointed out, that building is not in the actual RU18. It still will be B2 and it can be a normal office building or some other usage if that's what they deem that they want to do. Uh at council, we can always revise that.

I got another question for you. Yeah. this um marina this boat slip thing right is public private so how much involvement with the HOA be with this uh marina event restaurant type deal you have going on

yeah great question um somewhat complicated I'm not a u uh homeowner association and condo association specialist so I'll try to try to hack at this a little bit but there's going to be layers to this because if it's a a master plan community where there's going to be an overarching um owners association that controls it. I think we talked a little bit about that. And that owner association that takes care of the B2 and the common space and elements and park is separate from the residential side and the residential side will have its own associations uh in condo. Does that does that answer does that answer your question there? Uh yes. Okay.

Okay. Um M Mr. Chairman, I just have one more question. Um I don't know if I can direct it to the um attorney, but is is is there we have the ability to reject a profer? No. That you your position here is to either recommend to city council approval or um or to um recommend denial. If the if during the public hearing there's something that comes up and the applicant would like to amend the profer, you can certainly put that forward as part of your recommendation for approval. But um as far as changing profers, whether to accept them or not, that final decision is for city council to make. So city council once it goes up to city council have their their public hearing profers can be amended at that point. But in the UDO, there's not a process for this body to amend profers.

So, so to make sure I'm I'm understand even if there's an appointment or whatever, that's really city council's perview to handle whatever happens.

Right. So, what's in the package for you this afternoon is a list of profers that include the um donation of the property that contains the old VBOT office building that is made as a profer. So that is part of this. So either you will recommend approval and send that forward with the profers as they are written today or you will make a motion to recommend denial with the profers as they are written today. There's again as I mentioned there's no process in the UDO for you to amend the profers that have been put forward to you in the package. Thank you sir.

Okay. Um, okay. We call for the question. Um, the motion, Would you repeat the motion, sir? It's been a while since we covered it.

The motion was to table uh the this application for uh 30 days or to the 21st of of next month um to allow the school the input from the school board. We're not as I said before we are not the school board but I think this this part of the profer uh that they have submitted as a part of this package is a significant part of it because it impacts finances and everything else not only from the city standpoint but also from the developer standpoint. So that's why um my my feeling is that we need to have 30 days uh to be able to hear from what the school board wants to have on this thing and if at the end of that period of time which will be the our next meeting uh we'll go from there. If we don't hear anything from the school board uh by then or if the city does not hear anything from the school board then we'll go ahead and and and move on from that point.

Okay. So, the motion is basically to defer action on this uh until the October 21st meeting that we have. Um, call for the vote, please. Commissioners, please vote. to to defer action on this for to October 21st. Oh, Mr. Chairman, the motion passes by a vote of five to three. Okay. So, the motion is that we defer action on this to our uh October 21st meeting. So, it will be on the agenda. It will not be a public hearing. Um, but we will take a vote to uh at that time to move this forward to city council. I have a question.

Um, we have never ever gotten communication from the school board. What happens if how we get communication from the school board? Never. I've never gotten any communication. This group has never gotten communication. My understanding is that the let that uh Gary is Gary's still here. That information is going back to the city, right? City manager and the mayor and the and the council. Yes. The city manager requested um some response back in some form uh by October the 1st around October the 1st. Okay. All right. So then we are obligating the city to let us know. So I would presume been a deal.

I would presume Kevin that you will notify us or uh in our packet for next month um have something to the effect of whether or not the school board has responded and what that response is. Yeah. Should there be additional information made as it relates to this application um made to the city prior to your next meeting, we will certainly ensure that that is part of our analysis.

Okay. So, we will we will be sure we'll be following this. Okay. Thank you. That took a considerable amount of time. And Johnny, you got me so co so so confused with the school count, I forgot even to make my comments, but I'll save them for the next one. All right. I'm sorry I brought it up, you know.

No, that's fine. That's That was one of our options and we executed that. Okay. All right. Let's see. Trying to find my place here. Um next um is everybody here? We want to want to take a five minute break and then we will get back. So five minute break.

You you

If we can get going again, guys. We got some still got some business left. We missing Johnny. Okay. All right, everybody, if we can come back to order and move on with our agenda. Uh, the next item on the agenda is ordinance tax amendment OTAA 2025-00006. Mr. Wine, will you read the caption?

Yes, sir, I will. Uh, this is ordinance text amendment OTAA 2025006 initiated by the city of Suffach for amendments to the unified development ordinance of the code of the city of Suffach. section 31606 parking and loading standards subsections 31606 A6 and 31606A9 of the unified development ordinance. The purpose of the text amendment is to update and refine the code of the city of SuffK chapter 31 unified development ordinance. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and recommendation to city council relating to ordinance text amendment OTAA 2025006. Once again, our assistant director of planning, Megan Pittinger, will walk you through this request.

Thanks again, Kevin. Again, good afternoon, uh, chairman and members of planning commission. Um, this is an ordinance text amendment um to related to gravel parking for parks and athletic areas. Sometimes we bring to you really large code amendments. This one will be relatively small. Um so some background. We've recently had some conversations with our staff and with parks and wreck um about parking that's going to be provided or needs to be provided in um some proposed city park developments. Currently the regulations in section 31-606 of the UDO require that in most situations the parking that's required has to be paved. Um, and while we're having that discussion, we also discussed um some of the parking at athletic facilities owned by and operated by the nonprofits such as uh Suffach Youth uh athletic association. They currently have a fairly large area for parking that is gravel um and has been functioning well. They maintain it well and it and it suits their needs without it being paved. Um, so staff is proposing a text amendment that would allow for gravel to be used for the required parking in public parks and in athletic facil athletic field facilities owned and operated by nonprofit organizations. And so this is section 31-606A subsection 6. Um, as we were looking at this section, we also realized that there's another subsection within this that is a little, we think it's clear, but it's not been clear sometimes to some applicants. And so, we want to clarify that in all other areas, unless it's specifically stated, um, that parking spaces that are required must be paved with asphalt or concrete. And this is section 31606A9. So, what this looks like is this.

So again, what it st you all right before I came here, so about two and a half years ago um recommended approval and city council adopted the allowance for gravel to be in some agricultural uses and low volume areas. So this would add on to that um adding numbers to the items in this subsection um because it was a little hard to kind of follow of you know how it applied. So numbering the items 1 2 3 four and five five and six there and adding public parks as number five as where uh gravel could be could be permitted and then athletic facilities owned or operated by nonprofit organizations. So pretty specific there that it's not opening up gravel to lots of other uses but in these specific situations keeping the cost down for for these types of facilities. And and as I mentioned as we were reviewing this, we noticed down in section N in subsection nine there um that it it was a little ambiguous because it said other surface with comparable durable durability and strength and then you kind of had to argue what does that mean? So want to clarify that the other required parking spaces other than what is shown in this subsection six above need to be asphalt or concrete. Uh and that is the end of my presentation. and I will stand by for any questions you may have at the conclusion of the public hearing.

We will we will now close the public hearing. U that's I got to open it first. I'm still going I'm still going over the school populations. We we will open the public hearing. Is there anyone in attendance that would like to speak in favor of this item? Anyone in favor? Is there anyone here in attendance that would like to speak in opposition to this item? Can I close it now? We'll now close the public hearing. Um, commissioners questions, comments or motion is in order. And I believe this did go through our ordinance committee.

Mr. Chair, I offer a motion to approve OTAA 2025-00006. There's a motion on the floor to approve. This is a second. Been moved and seconded. Is there any questions or comments? If not, call for the vote. Yes, sir. Commissioners, please vote. Commissioner Hicks. There we go.

Mr. Chairman, the motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. Okay, this uh has been approved and the item will go to city council on October the 15th with our recommendation for approval. Uh the next item on our agenda is ordinate text amendment OTAA 2025-00007. Mr. Wine, will you please read the caption?

Yes, sir. Ordinance text amendment OTAA 2025007 initiated by the city of Suffk for amendments to the unified development ordinance of the code of the city of Suffk section 31717171717171717171717177 temporary uses subsection 31717 C7 of the unified development ordinance. The purpose of this text amendment is to update and refine the code of the city of SUFFK chapter 31 unified development ordinance. When you act on this request, you'll be acting on a resolution to present a report and recommendation to city council relating to ordinance text amendment OTAA 2025007. I believe for the first time uh you will hear from Bill Melon, our zoning administrator, who will walk you through this ordinance tax amendment.

Thank you, director. Um good afternoon, board members, chair. Uh this is a text amendment to fine-tune our current regulations to allow food trucks and residential districts in conjunction with a special events permit. City council asked staff and planning commission to look into the possibility of allowing food trucks in residential areas in association with community events. Currently, food trucks are only permitted in the MUC 40, which is our mixed urban core, B2, which is our business, general business, VC, which is our village center, our CBD, of course, is our central business district, our uh MUD, which is the mixed use overlay development district, also our office industri, excuse me, office institutional, the OI, and our industrial districts which is the M1 and the M2 and the fairgrounds districts. The fairground red uh revitalization and redevelopment districts. Also, food trucks may not be located within 150 ft of a residential district. Staff is proposing two text amendments that allow food trucks in residential areas only when a special event permit is obtained. This is the text of the proposed uh amendments. Basically, this is 31-717C7. And we we're requesting to add uh proposing to add in 7A where it says a food truck shall only be permitted in the MU40, the B2, the BC, the CBD, the MUD, the OI, the M1 and M2, and the F, excuse me, FRRD zoning districts. We're

proposing to add the text unless a special events permit is obtained. Also, F section F4, we're going to remove, we're proposing to remove the the limitation that says food trucks may not be located within 150 ft of a residential district. We feel that the uh proposed tax amendments will allow food trucks in residential districts with only with the days, times, and locations of operation regulated by the approved special events permit. And we present this uh proposal to you, this text amendment for your favorable consideration with a staff recommendation of of approval. I'll stand by for any questions. Thank you, Mr. Miller. We will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone in attendance that would like to speak in favor of this item? In favor of this item? Anyone would like to speak? Is there anyone here that would like to speak in opposition to this item? Anyone here in opposition? Seems to be none. We'll close the public hearing. Commissioners questions, comments or motion is in order. I will presume also that this went through our ordinance committee and they recommend approval.

Chairman, I have have a couple questions. May I offer May I offer a motion first? Certainly. Um I offer a motion to approve OTAA 2025-007. Is there a second to the motion? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Uh questions?

All right. Um just to give you a background history of um why this has come before us. Um I live in the HOA Park side at Bennis Creek. I'm also the uh HOA president and we often have food trucks in our uh community for um social events. Um, as as is written now, proposed to us, it would appear that we would have to submit a special uh permit uh for each occasion uh for these uh food trucks. But when I went to the parks and wreck website, I see that the uh flowchart has been updated that uh if it's on private property and the event is not open to the public, the uh a special event permit is not necessary. So, I mean, does that hold true? Kevin, you want to chime in on the special event permit? So, uh, the key there being, uh, would it be open to the general public? Um, I I think in the case that you presented, um, it would be a little ambiguous on whether folks from outside would would be available uh, to go. But historically, um, larger events, uh, even if they're held on public or, uh, privately held property, um, it's important for, uh, the city to be aware of where they're located, um, for a variety of reasons, primarily fire and safety. Um, concentration of, uh, folks within one area um, is something we'd

like to have on our radar should something um, unfortunate happen. Uh so yeah um in in this case a special event permit would still hold true. Um and we've been actively in communication with our um parks and recck department who facilitate the special event permit and uh they are in support of this ordinance tax amendment that are proposed before you today.

Right. So, if um if a HOA still wanted to host um these food trucks and um and submit submit for a special event permit, I guess we would have to uh petition for a waiver if that's possible of the uh $50 fee and the 45day requirement of uh this special permit. Um if the 45day um window does not work, uh that is something you can discuss at submitt of the special event permit with parks and wreck. Uh as it relates to the waiver of the fee. Uh if that does not work, uh that's another discussion that can be held with parks and wreck.

All right, one last comment. Um I want to thank um Rita Lawson from Mr. Yummy buns for their um approval of um having food trucks in residential area. I just want to make sure I acknowledge that for them. Okay, any other questions? If not, uh we have a motion on the floor. Uh it's been moved and seconded. Um we'll take the vote. All right, commissioners, please vote.

Mr. Chairman, the motion is approved by a vote of 8 to zero. Okay. This um this item will go before city council on October the 15th with our recommendation for approval. Moving on. Uh, is there any old business? Uh, no sir. Okay, moving on. Staff report. Um, significant land use item.

Yes sir. I will present you all with an overview of a significant land use item that is tenatively scheduled for your meeting next month. Um, we should have some slides up there. Give it a moment. system. We've had so much discussion today. I think it did break the system. Johnny,

it's all right. what I what I can do I I'll start um providing an overview of the project if we um have some maps and illustrations uh to accommodate and they come up uh that would be helpful but if not um this is a project that you all would be familiar with. It's been um on your agenda two previous occasions um ultimately with deferral recommended by u requested by the applicant uh both times uh formerly known as the Manning Road project uh resoning. Um this is a property that is located on Manning Road. uh consist of two separate parcels. Um tax map 33, parcel 75 and 75A. Um oh, look at that. Here we go. Awesome. All right. Um and here you can see it's biseected by an existing railroad right of way. Um but the bulk of the property there is to the north of the rightway. It's um directly across from the Springfield uh subdivision just across the street. You can see zoned RLM. Um, in this case, they are requesting a reszoning of all 113 acres currently zoned A, that's our agricultural zoning district, and they're looking to reszone that to RLM. Um, like across the street there, and that would be conditional because there are profers associated with it. Ultimately, uh they are requesting, here's your conceptual layout, um requesting to construct up to 300 single family detached dwellings. Um that would allow for a gross density of 2.9 dwelling units per acre. um that is the maximum allowable density within your RLM zoning district and does

align with the suburban land use type uh that this property is designated uh for within our 2045 comprehensive plan. Um as the suburban land use type allows for a a density between 0.5 units per acre up to four units per acre. So it does fall within that recommended range. This will be developed as a cluster subdivision. Um and here are the profers uh that are associated with the application. Uh I I know no one can read that. Um but uh some of the highlights as it relates to that. Um there are uh there is rather a deficit capacity right now at the elementary school level. Uh presently this site is zoned for Kilby Shores Elementary School. Um as a result of that the developer is providing a cash contribution or proposing a cash contribution to advance capacity for a CIP project uh as it relates to a reconstruction of Kilby Shores Elementary School uh in an amount of $1.9 million. Um there are some architectural uh design um profers as offered by the applicant. Uh further this would be a cluster subdivision. Uh so ultimately 45% of the overall site uh would be held in open space. Um, presently the developer is in active um, discussions with Norphick Southern as it relates to the railroad right ofway there to formally uh, establish a crossing so that they can leverage that southern piece uh, as passive open space for the development. Um, that is something that they would need to uh, get squared away by the time

they get to development plan on the site. So that is the overview as it relates to this item. Uh like I said that is scheduled for public hearing before you all at your October 21st meeting. Thank you. Anyone have any questions? I just heard you change from conservation open space to passive space open space and I just wonder what there

I know. So um when it comes to the development of subdivisions, you have active and passive open space. As this is being developed as a cluster subdivision, um they would be required to provide a certain amount of active open space. Those are your um active trails, your ball fields, um your your more active amenities. Uh there are a variety of creative ways to to meet that, but um where folks will generally um be active. sports fields we see a lot playgrounds that they would check that uh box. Um but the primary purpose of a cluster subdivision uh other than to allow for lot size flexibility is preservation of large swaths of open space. Um as you can see on the conceptual layout um all of that uh southern piece of the property would be held I think they're calling it conservation on the exhibit. This would be passive open space. Um, and as such, because it would be a cluster subdivision, the city would hold a deed of easement of open space over that in perpetuity. Got you.

Kevin, real quick on that that that showing, what is the shaded area right in runs through the summit? Uh that shaded area is put there to depict where um a new pump station would potentially be on the site uh to serve the development. Okay. All right. Moving on. Um capital improvement plan. Kevin, you want me to do my thing first or you want to do yours first? Uh I can walk y'all through really quick. Like I said, um

I'll hopefully be really brief on this. Um but as we we we talked about the capital improvement plan a lot uh as a part of the the VOTE resoning that ultimately was deferred to your meeting next month. Um but this is capital improvement plan uh season here at the city of SUFFK. uh city departments um submitted their request for CIP projects uh to uh our budget and strategic planning department um last week. Uh so with that being said, I I we've talked uh amongst this group here, this DAS before about the planning commission's role as it relates to the the capital improvements program and plan. Um and ultimately what that involvement should be and and what your role is as it relates to the development of it. Um considering that uh two planning commissioners ultimately serve on this CIP subcommittee, I wanted to take an opportunity to walk y'all through um at least what state code uh acknowledges as your role in the process and how the city um develops its capital improvement plan annually. So um we go back one slide even if I can read it. No. Uh there we go. Um so uh really briefly the the what is a capital improvements plan? It's really important to note that only that first year of the capital improvements plan is funded. Um that uh that's why it's important to have a capital improvement plan in place. Uh by the time that city council ultimately adopts a budget which generally is in the spring, um the capital improvements plan uh usually is adopted a month or two prior to that in February, generally

early February. Um but it's a 10-year document. Um the first five years serve as the program. Um and then you get out into the entire 10 years, and that's that's the plan itself. um projects that cost at least $50,000 um and have an estimated service life of at least five years are eligible um as projects. So that's why you don't see all um types of projects in there, but we're really talking about large um construction projects for the city. Not but not limited to also u major infrastructure replacement projects. Um it's common to see HVAC replacement projects for schools for instance. They find their way into the capital improvements plan because those are significant um financial burdens for the city. But um getting talking about vehicles and equipment um fire trucks, ambulances um and our citywide fleet fund are all part of that. But um transportation projects, uh schools, new fire stations, the library for instance, these are all um types of projects that you would see as a part of this capital improvements plan. Um, so the planning commission's role, I'm going to breeze through this, but um, this is straight out of the the Code of Virginia. Um, as it relates to the role that a locality can play uh, in regulating development. Um there are many things that fall under the purview, but I it's all tied back to um ensuring that development happens in an orderly fashion um in in pursuit of a variety of goals. uh starting with the improvement of public health, safety, convenience, uh welfare of their citizens um and to ensure that future

development of communities. Uh to that end, um you're very cognizant of transportation systems and that they be carefully planned that uh new community systems be developed adequately with highway, utility, health, educational, and recreation facilities. um the need for um mineral resources and uh the needs for agriculture industry and business be recognized in future growth. This gives you a really good idea of all the competing interests that you um uh local governments and planning commissions are given as they um weigh development proposals and how they align to meet those goals because uh like I said sometimes they're competing interests. Additionally, um should you be adjacent to a mil uh military establishment, um this would be much more of a consideration for other uh cities within Hampton Roads, uh less for us, but uh that residential centers be provided with healthy surroundings for family life. Um a land and forest land um be preserved and that the growth of the community be uh con uh consent with the efficient and economical use of public funds. Um these are very broad statements. Uh some are certainly relative as we see. Uh so these are just a few examples of projects that are underway. Once again, these were in the capital improvements plan, but uh I think everyone has seen the benefits of the uh new overpass on Wilroy Road. Um and uh how traffic gets through that section at least on most days uh better than it did previously. Uh most days being key there. Um, but uh I know I drive it daily and I've uh certainly um had a more pleasurable commute uh day in day out. But uh a project that is hoping to be wrapped up

um before next school year uh is the replacement school for JFK uh middle school. Ultimately a $75 million project. Um schools are quite expensive. Um and uh we replaced Colonel Fred Cherry. Uh it's been not quite a decade. It was I think 2018 replacement 2019. Um but the the cost difference between just those handful of years between these projects is pretty impressive. Uh I know CO played a significant role in that, but um it's in cost can um inflate quite uh quite rapidly. Uh so what is the planning commission's role? And this is kind of uh really what I wanted to talk about today. Um really the the capital improvements plan um similar to the comprehensive plan the language utilized in the code of Virginia is that it is uh to be prepared by the the planning commission. um that's not interpreted uh to to be literal uh because there's a lot of qualified folks here uh with the city of Suffach who um will make their recommendations and ultimately uh ensure that you are involved uh in getting to a draft document for you all to consider uh when it ultimately comes to you. But why is that? Why does um this capital improvements plan require uh you all's feedback and and why is that so important to the process? Because it comes down to the comprehensive plan and its compliance with it. Um you all uh know best where uh development is occurring through the applications that come before you all. Um you all know um where our growth areas are. Uh so ultimately comes down to are we um

planning appropriately for future growth as it relates to where we plan to grow. Are we investing in capital projects on in in places that ultimately make sense and a good use of uh taxpayer funds for the city? So, uh, schedule, um, like I said, uh, we from a staff perspective, uh, submitted our request for funding, uh, to our, uh, budget office last week. Um, so over the the next month or so, they'll, uh, be working to decipher, um, the the millions and millions and millions of dollars that uh, departments will ultimately not see in the ultimate CIP. Um, in October, uh, the city manager and, um, budget will, uh, begin meeting with departments, uh, including the school system to discuss their request in one-on-one meetings. Um, and then that will lead to November, and that is when the CIP subcommittee, which does include two members of this commission, um, as well as the mayor and the vice mayor, uh, will consider those requests and make their recommendations formally. Um and then uh December budget will be uh here before you all um to present the CIP in full um as recommended by the subcommittee. Um that's the meeting before the action meeting which takes place in January and that's where your formal recommendation to city council will come into play. Um ultimately the hope is to have a capital improvement plan adopted uh by city council in February as uh we begin to actively get into um the city manager's budget uh budget presentation to city council. Uh so today on your agenda um we need

two members uh to serve on the subcommittee uh for the CIP. um in December uh we'll receive the subcommittee's recommended CIP and uh January that is when you all will see it. Um that is when you all will take formal action and make that recommendation to the city council. Uh so I I know that was brief. It's been a long meeting today. Um but I'm certainly open to any questions you all have about it. Um my hope is that uh you all at least um get a little better understanding of why um there are members of the planning commission on that CIP. Um a little insight to how we work towards adoption of the CIP here in the city of Suffach. Um and how it's really all tied to it all comes back to the the comprehensive plan as far as we're concerned. Good.

Thank you.

Any any questions on this with Kevin? If not, at this time, I appoint Vice Chairman Anita Hicks and Commissioner Creek Moore to serve as the planning commission representatives to the capital improvement plan subcommittee and they have agreed to serve in that capacity. So, we will be uh looking forward to you uh coming back with information for us. Um, we do have one other item. Um, uh, in my haste to move the agenda along, uh, the I didn't cover the minutes, so the minutes of our August meeting were included in your packets. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes? If not, so they stand approved as presented. All right, we got to take care of that. Now, moving on. And and we've got uh uh city council. Let's do this before this since I'm playing around with the agenda today. Um, Councilman Bower, I believe you would like to make a motion uh dealing with us uh having uh before our meetings uh in our agenda the pledge of allegiance. I think last month's meeting you brought it up that in your education to become a a outstanding planning commissioner, you saw that some other commissions were doing this. I'll be honest with you, I thought about it for 10 years and did nothing about it. So, I think I think you have a motion that would uh basically uh and it's a bylaw. It has to be done by it's in our bylaw is the agenda. So, this agenda that we've been playing all around with today is set by the bylaw. So, this motion would would basically add the uh the um pledge of allegiance following the invocation. So, Miss Mau,

I hope I don't butcher it and I'm not trying to make meetings longer. Um um you might might need your help, city attorney. Um, I make a motion to amend the bylaws of the order of business for planning commission meetings to include uh the pledge of allegiance following the invocation. Yeah, invocation. Um, that's it. Thanks. That that's the form of a motion. I second a motion.

That's been moved and second. Any questions? If not, call for the We can do this by voice vote or we need to count it. I guess we need to count it. All right, call for the vote, Kevin. All right, we're going to wear this machine out today. Commissioners, please vote.

Mr. Chairman, the motion is approved by a vote of 800. Thank you, Commissioner Ba. I think that'll be a wonderful addition to our meeting. So, was that or was that or you singing the national anthem? So, that wouldn't be bad. Can I make a motion for that? No. Um, and now we will have a status report for the um city council meeting August 20th. Mr. Wine.

Yes, sir. I'll provide you with status report and then I u want to introduce you all to a new staff member as well. So, um, the status report of city council's August 20th meeting, there were two items on the agenda. Uh, one of those was ultimately withdrawn. That was the Holland Glenn resoning. You may recall that was a a request out there on Holland Road to reszone property from A to RC um for a little less than 100 units, but ultimately um the applicant withdrew that application. Uh the last uh pretty basic one uh this was a um a cell tower um and a conditional use permit to construct that cell tower to improve cell coverage um along Bridge Road. Uh specifically, this is property that is part of the uh Temple Bethl campus. Uh so those were the two items and that was approved by council um unanimously with the conditions. Um, so, uh, with that being said, I wanted to take a quick moment, um, to introduce a new senior planner with our organization. Uh, she'll be primarily working on environmental projects for us, so we're super excited about that. But, um, uh, senior planner, uh, Cassie McKelie is, um, our new planner. She's been with us for a month or so, about three weeks. Um, so she's quickly learning. Time flies when you're having fun here in the city of Suffach. Um, but we're very excited to have her um and her experience here with the city.

Cassie, welcome to the planning department. Glad to have you. Uh, status report, preliminary plat approved. Uh, none this month, sir. Okay, moving on. Last but not least, uh, I think I've got everything uh that we've done. We made it through somehow. Once again, um, comments by the commissioners. I will start on the right. Commissioner Goodwin, he's here. Come right on around. Any comments?

I have no comments, but I'm thankful to be on this board uh with all of the diversity and all of the conversation. I think it's it does wholesome for me and it gives me increased wisdom. So, thank you to all of you. Wonderful. Thank you, Johnny. I've spoken enough.

I agree. all the way on the left. That's kind of scary saying that, but um thank you for a a great meeting today, great conversation. Um my word of the day that I started off is peace. So I'm going to end it with a famous quote from um Don Canelius. peace and hair grease. Have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh I feel like if former chairman Singleton was here, he'd be giving me that look like you've said enough, young lady. So, I'm gonna say thank you, Mr. Creekmore. I would uh agree with Johnny. I've had enough today. Said enough. appreciate Vice Chairman Hicks. Yeah,

I probably have had have said enough today, too. But um from Liberty Street from East on East Washington Street from Liberty Street to the railroad track used to be very very vibrant um area. We called it the fairground. That's what we thought was the fairground. Um, I just happened to have been fortunate enough to have a mother who owned um, a business there, a beauty shop there from the 50s. Um, first was called Georgie's House of Beauty and then she named it after herself, Thelma's House of Beauty. She worked there uh, until she was 83 years old. She got uh, jealous because I retired and came home and she was still working. Um, she succumbed finally at the age of 101 on August 20th. Um, and I'm so very appreciative for the long life that she led. She had a great life. Um, I I can't even imagine the kind of life that she lived, and I don't want to live as long as she did. But, um, I thank all of you. Um, there have been so many people who have poured out love as the result of her passing. Um, please know that, um, we are not sad. We are just, um, so grateful for the life that she lived. And thank you all so much for your condolences. Thank you, Commissioner Hicks. Um, and and she took my thunder. I was going to u point out that um her mother passed away and she was uh in her hundreds and um how how sorry we are for your loss. Uh, I did attend the funeral, however, and uh, I found out, in fact, I have uh, placed in my will a request that that Commissioner Hicks sang at my funeral cuz she sang at her mother's funeral and it was absolutely uh, spellbinding. So, uh, we got a real maybe she can do the national anthem for us. So, and you know, hey, hey, we we've got a real star here. So, so sorry for your loss. It's

been a long meeting. Everybody, thank you for your participation today and we will see you in a month. Stand adjourned.