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HomeMy Public PortalAbout03 02 17 PC MinutesThe Town of Leesburg in Virginia Leesburg Planning Commission Meeting Minutes March 2, 2017 The Leesburg Planning Commission met on Thursday, March 2, 2017 in the Town Council Chamber, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, VA 20176. Staff members present were Susan Berry -Hill, Shelby Caputo, and Karen Cicalese. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm by Chairman Welsh Chamblin PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairman Welsh Chamblin, Commissioners Babbin, Kidder, Lanham, Robinson (arrived at 7:06 pm) and Walker Absent: Commissioner Barnes ADOPTION OF AGENDA Motion: Commissioner Babbin Second: Commissioner Kidder Vote: 5-0-2(Barnes and Robinson absent) APPROVAL OF MINUTES February 16, 2017 Motion: Commissioner Lanham Second: Commissioner Kidder Chairman Welsh Chamblin noted that a correction needed to be made to page 5 of the minutes to include Chamblin after Chairman Welsh. Vote: 6-0-1-1 (Barnes absent, Babbin abstained)) DISCLOSURE OF MEETINGS None CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT Chairman Welsh Chamblin noted that she was looking forward to the Tree Commission presentation and thanked Mr. Ference for coming to the meeting. She was also looking forward to discussion on the annual report as well as the work plan and some of the other things they would like to discuss moving forward. PETITIONERS None PUBLIC HEARING None Leesburg Planning Commission March 2, 2017 Minutes SUBDIVISION AND LAND DEVELOPMENT None ZONING None COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING None SRTC Report None STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS Tree Commission Briefing — Bill Ference, Parks and Public Space Planner Mr. Ference briefed the Planning Commission on the status of Leesburg's Tree Canopy and Urban Forestry Program. The focus was on the following: Canopy Coverage and Influencing Factors — The canopy is holding up, but barely. The last time he was before the Commission in 2015 he reported that they had calculated 26.5% coverage. Currently, they are calculating 25% coverage. Causes for the reduction include the clearing of the Lowes site, the Cube site on Battlefield Parkway, and the Cornerstone Chapel site. These projects, plus a few smaller projects, took approximately 4,000 to 5,000 trees. Another factor effecting the tree canopy is tree mortality. The Town is in the midst of a very strong epidemic of Emerald Ash Beetle which is killing all the Ash trees. The Ash tree coverage in the Town was approximately 5% of the overall canopy a couple years ago. We've since lost 1 to 2% and the others will be gone in another 2 years. There will be a few specimens that will survive and hopefully carry the Ash population in a limited way but there will be additional canopy loss. Tree Planting — There are a number of ways that the Town gets new trees and include trees required for new development and occasional reforestation projects by volunteers. However most of those projects are in flood plain areas and that number will diminish as we move forward as there are a lot more restrictions on planting trees in floodplain. Additionally, private land owner's plant trees on their property and there are Town projects such as Capital Projects for roadways and infrastructure improvements, canopy improvement projects, neighborhood tree planting projects, and general tree planting in parks. Maintenance — The issue with the Town's ability to maintain trees planted by the Town has been resolved and the Town now has a maintenance contract system in place. There is also a contract in place for maintenance of large trees. Education — This is a function of the Tree Commission, however, they are in need of 2 commissioners. The Commission has a booth at the Flower & Garden show each year where they distribute information and give away approximately 2,000 seedlings. They also have a 2 Leesburg Planning Commission March 2, 2017 Minutes Fourth Grade Forester Program which has been around for a couple years. Additionally the Tree Commission is developing a self -guided map of the Historic District. Mr. Ference concluded his presentation noting that he had two concerns regarding the tree canopy moving forward. There is currently a tree planting project in the CIP, however that money will be gone in FY 2018 and it is his hope that those funds will be restored in the future. The second concern is that he currently works part time and will be retiring in December and it is his hope that the Town will look into hiring a full time Urban Forester. Commissioner Babbin asked if the dead Black Ash trees along Wirt Street were being replaced and if so, with what type of tree. Mr. Ference responded that they were being replaced and in the planting this past fall they were replaced with Black, Brown and Princeton Elm trees as they are disease resistant trees. Commissioner Lanham asked about tree planting along South King Street. Mr. Ference explained that the Town did plant trees in the section between Country Club Drive and Meade Drive, however some trees were lost due to the developer of Meadowbrook Estates putting in a left hand turning lane. These trees will be replaced as well as an additional 110 trees in the section from Meade Drive to the Town limits that is scheduled to be completed this spring. Commissioner Robinson asked about the tree planting success rate. Mr. Ference responded that he has had a 95% success rate over his career, however it is dependent upon the contractor. He further explained that there are guarantees in place to replace those trees that do not survive. Commissioner Kidder expressed concern regarding the removal of funds from the CIP and suggested that the Commission make a recommendation to Town Council. Chairman Welsh Chamblin explained that the CIP had already been presented to Council and the Commission was not able to make changes to their vote and recommendations. She encouraged Commissioner Kidder to go to Council as an individual and express her concerns. Chairman Welsh Chamblin asked if the tree map being developed included both public and private property. Mr. Ference answered that it did. OLD BUSINESS NEW BUSINESS Review of Planning Commission Annual Report Chairman Welsh Chamblin noted that some of the applications that were carried over to additional meetings were due to an applicant's request to postpone and asked that this information be included in the report. Staff will include this information in the final report which will be presented to Council by either Chairman Welsh Chamblin or Vice Chair Robinson. 3 Leesburg Planning Commission March 2, 2017 Minutes Planning Commission Work Plan Susan Berry -Hill, Director, Department of Planning and Zoning, noted that she was not quite sure what the Commission had anticipated with this item, however she was prepared to give an overview of the presentation she gave to Council on the Department's work plan. Commissioner Kidder explained that she had made this request so that the Commission could develop a work plan based on their objectives for this year. Ms. Berry -Hill began with an overview of the key projects for 2017, many of which will be coming forward to the Planning Commission. Proffer Statute Amendments: Staff presented three approaches to address the proffer statute issue to Council at their Work Session Monday night. Council has directed staff to prepare the approach that includes exempting areas that are considered to be small area plans such as the Crescent Design District and the East Market Street Small Area Plan area. Proffers will be accepted within these small area plan areas. This approach was proposed as there is not a lot of vacant area outside of these two small areas. This will be coming before the Planning Commission in the next 2 to 3 months. H-2 Historic Corridor Architectural Control Overlay District — Joint BAR/PC Recommendations: Council directed the Planning Commission and the BAR to review the H-2 corridor to determine if the current guidelines need to be updated or replaced. There was a joint meeting on February 6th and a work group was established. The group had their first meeting on Wednesday evening and decided to look at the H-2 corridors geographically to look at the character of each segment and come up with recommendations to address design. This will be coming back to both the BAR and PC at another joint meeting on June 1St Greenway Extension: Last fall Council recommended that the Greenway extension area, Greenway to Harrison Street, be removed from the Town Plan. There is a process for the removal of road segments in our Town Plan which requires a study process that is scoped with VDOT. Staff has worked with VDOT to get it scoped and have contracted with a consultant to assist with this project. This will result in a proposed amendment to the Town Plan and will be coming before the Commission in the early fall. East Market Street Area Plan: This was started last February and a few public input meetings were held. Unfortunately, work was suspended on the project due to Department workload. Work has been resumed and the department has a new planner, Rich Klusek, who has been assigned as Project Manager. This will also be coming before the Commission. Town Hall Grounds and Garage Master Plan: This was recommended by the BAR during their review of the splash fountain proposal on the east portion of the Mervin Jackson Park. The BAR was interested in understanding what the overall plan was for all the grounds that surround Town Hall as well as the parking garage. The Commission on Public Art also appealed to Council to do a master plan to see what type of art work is being proposed. This will be a collaborative process in terms of project management. Ms. Berry Hill will be working with Rich Williams 11 Leesburg Planning Commission March 2, 2017 Minutes from Parks and Rec. and Keith Markel from the Town Manager's Office. The task will be to get input from several Boards and Commissions including the Planning Commission. 2017 Zoning Ordinance Batch: The batch is done annually to address clarifications and corrections to the ordinance. It also addresses legislation passed by the General Assembly. The department did not do a Batch last year due to the number of individual text amendments initiated by Council. Staff will begin working on the Batch in July and it will be before the Planning Commission in the late fall. Ms. Berry Hill discussed the upcoming case load and informed the Commission that they will be reviewing the Montfair, Meadowbrook Commercial, Brickyard, and River Creek land development cases within the next 6 months. Additionally, there are a number of ongoing and potential projects that the department will be tasked with and include downtown topics - parking included, zoning permitting and inspection, Crescent Design District, low impact development (LID) and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance to address the Crescent Design District and landscaping and buffering in Article 12. Lastly, Ms. Berry -Hill discussed the status of the priority projects from the Town Plan Action Program. Staff last briefed the Commission on the Town Plan Action Program on December 17, 2015. The CIP Criteria project was completed in 2014 and the Floodplain Ordinance update was just completed in February of 2017. Currently three projects remain. The ordinance amendment for LID, revision or replacement of H-2 Design Guidelines, and the Small Area Plan for the East Market Street corridor. Work has begun on both the H-2 Guidelines and East Market Street Small Area Plan. The H-2 Work group is in the process of completing their part of the review and their recommendations will be presented to Council on June 26, 2017. If Council accepts the recommendations, work will begin to address those recommendations and this project will continue on through year end. Rich Klusek will begin working on the East Market Street Small Area Plan in March and work will also continue on this project through year end. The ordinance amendment for LID was recommended by the Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) several years ago. The Council accepted their recommendation to look at ways to address run- off on site so that the run-off is kept and filtered on-site as opposed to going into the storm sewers. There are a number of things that can be done to promote LID. One is to reduce impervious surface area which can be accomplished by reducing parking ratios. Staff was hoping to begin work on this once the Floodplain Ordinance was complete, however, that is not possible due to current workload. Staff hopes to begin work on this late this year or early next year but lacks the staff capacity to do so now. Commissioner Kidder expressed her concern regarding the piece meal approach to the Town Plan review as it ignores the overall objectives of the Plan. She asked if it would be possible for the Planning Commission to review sections of the Town Plan for revisions throughout the year. Ms. Berry -Hill explained that the East Market Street Small Area Plan will amend the Town Plan just as the Crescent Design District did. The State Code requires localities to look at their Comprehensive Plan every 5 years. It does not have to be a comprehensive review. Reviewing portions of the plan will satisfy the State Code requirement. Ms. Berry -Hill noted that the Planning Commission could have work sessions to review the Town Plan, however if the Commission is asking that staff design and facilitate that process, that would not be possible. 5 Leesburg Planning Commission March 2, 2017 Minutes Chairman Welsh Chamblin suggested that the Commission assist staff with current projects to get them completed this year and if they are successful in doing so to possibly look at reviewing the Town Plan next year when there might be more staff resources available. The Commission members were agreeable to this approach. Downtown Parking Update Commissioner Robinson asked if Council was including the entire Town in their parking review. Ms. Berry -Hill explained that Council is looking at the downtown area and the payment -in -lieu program. Council has made downtown parking a priority and this has been scheduled as a Work Session item on April 24th Chairman Welsh Chamblin asked if Council will be taking the new County garage into consideration as they discuss parking options downtown. Ms. Berry -Hill responded that there has been a lot of discussion regarding this. The new garage is remotely located for a lot of the businesses downtown with the demand being in the Market Station area. Commissioner Robinson commented that the previous Parking Task Force was tasked with how to get people off the street and into the parking deck. It was her hope that when this gets to Council, staff will provide guidance to ensure that they look at all the ordinances, payment -in - lieu, free parking, shared parking, sources of funding for a parking garage, etc. Ms. Berry -Hill explained that in September the Planning Commission recommended a comprehensive approach to parking which staff carried forward to Council. Staff recommended that Council not just look at payment -in -lieu in isolation, but rather look at an overall strategy to address parking in the downtown. Council agreed however they did not provide specific direction on how to move forward. The discussion at the April Work Session will be a continuation from the September discussion and address how to move forward. Commissioner Babbin noted her agreement with Commissioner Robinson regarding the need to look at free parking downtown. The revenue from paid parking is minimal in comparison to the business that would be generated by free parking. Also there are concerns from a legal standpoint regarding payment -in -lieu requirements for historic buildings versus newer construction. Ms. Berry -Hill commented that there is a pending ordinance amendment addressing this issue which Council put on hold and will be part of the overall comprehensive parking strategy being discussed in April. ADJOURNMENT The Meeting was adjourned at 8:23 pm. Ap , roved by: _ 1 } areas Cicalese, Commission Clerk JJ t'A Lyndsay W h Chamblin, Chair 2