The Charlottesville City Council adopted several items at their meeting on February 5, including second reading of a $4 million purchase of property owned by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority at 405 Avon Street.
But for now, let’s head back to the February 1 special meeting of the Council where two public hearings were held. These are mostly held on Mondays in City Council Chambers, but these public hearings were held on a Thursday in CitySpace.
The official public notice was published in the January 18, 2024 Daily Progress. A subscription is not required to review these online which are handled by a partner organization of Lee Enterprises. (view the site)
The first public hearing was on an updated fee schedule for city review of land use applications.
“We’re bringing this forward because we have this new zoning code that you all approved for us and with this we have a lot of changes to terminology,” said Missy Creasy, the deputy director of the Department of Neighborhood Development Services. “There’s a couple of new applications. There’s basically some nomenclature that we needed to get addressed to make sure that both of those documents are going to line up.”
Creasy said the fees have been kept generally the same because there was not a lot of study about what they should be, but a more formal review will happen in the near future.
The fees for NDS services are different from fees charged for building permits. Council updated those fees on April 17, 2023 after getting an introduction on April 10, 2023. (read my story)
- Link to chart with comparison of changes
- A list of current building fees with NDS fees
- The new Neighborhood Development Services fee schedule
No one spoke during the public hearing.
Did anyone know about it? I confess I did not put it in my Week Ahead for January 25 because when I wrote it up on Sunday, January 24, the city’s website only listed it as a budget development work session which is customary. I cannot recall a Council public hearing on a Thursday. I let myself down by not reporting this in advance and I feel I have let some of you down as well.
Council adopted the new fee schedule for NDS.
Next, Council had a public hearing on an amendment to the new Development Code on a provision that would have allowed retail under 4,000 square feet in Residential-B and Residential-C zones. Creasy said that remained in the adopted zoning an oversight caused by a “scrivener’s error.”
“You all as Council at your work session on November 29 noted that at this time you all were not interested in having retail allowable in the residential areas,” Creasy said. “You all had clearly noted that and as part of our process in getting all of the corrections made, that did not enter into the document.”
Before the public hearing was opened, Councilor Natalie Oschrin wanted to reconsider the idea.
“I know that this was voted on previously,” Oschrin said. “Me in the audience watching this disagreed with the decision Council made. So, I don’t know what we do about that.”
Mayor Juandiego Wade said Oschrin wasn’t in the audience anymore and had the opportunity to have a vote.
No one spoke during the public hearing. Again, I let you down by not telling you it would be happening.
Councilor Lloyd Snook said the November 29 decision to strip commercial from residential zones put in motion a series of votes that led to adoption of the Development Code.
“And for us to revisit substantively that question upsets, at least for me, upsets the balance that we have struck,” Snook said.
Snook suggested revisiting the idea the next time the Comprehensive Plan is reviewed. Councilor Brian Pinkston said he would support reviewing the policy sooner than that after there is some discussion of the economic impacts of such a change.
City Councilor Michael Payne said he thought leaving retail in residential areas with a special use permit would be the right policy.
“I think allowing it only by special use permit was the significant compromise and keeping it in would give us the most data to evaluate how to move forward over the next two plus year,” Payne said.
Wade said he supported retail in residential with a special use permit, but he supported the compromise and voted to approve the amendment. There had been no formal vote at the November 29, 2023 work session but there had been a straw poll.
Oschrin abstained on the vote and said she wants to revisit the matter soon.
“Partly because it does take long to implement change so the more we delay, the longer it will take,” Oschrin said. “I think we can put our foot on the gas a little bit there.”
James Freas, the director of NDS, said there were other ways to address impacts of commercial businesses in residential areas. He said home-based businesses exist and he would evaluate how that process might be used to expand commercial uses. City Manager Sam Sanders said a lot of work will need to be done to implement the new system under the Development Code as it is, and he would need time to come back with more information.
The vote was 3 to 1 on the amendment with Payne voting against.
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A note on this one. The image of the use table is outdated but you’ll note there is a February 3, 2023 date so hopefully that’s evident. I don’t know how to put captions on “featured images” which is what that one is. All a work in progress!