Planning Commission Regular Meeting   5/10/2022

Good evening, everyone, and welcome.

This is the meeting of the Albemarle County Planning Commission.

Today is May the 10th, and I will read this little statement before we open up for business, but the opportunities for the public to access and participate in the hybrid meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Planning Commission homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar.

Participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received.

And so it is now six o'clock, and we will call the meeting to order.

Let's establish a quorum.

Yes.

Mr. Bivins and Ms.

All right.

Thank you.

And so we have a quorum established.

And so for the next item, other matters not listed on the agenda from the public.

No, there sure are.

All right.

Thank you.

and it looks like there is nothing on our consent agenda.

And so now we are on item number four, ZMA 2021-00011, heritage on Rio.

Thank you.

Rebecca Ragsdale, Planning Manager.

This is an applicant request to defer to a date specific.

And it was advertised for a public hearing.

So you will need to open and close the public hearing.

Thank you so much for that report.

And with that, we will open for public comment.

Open to public hearing, I should say.

No, sir.

Alright.

Is there a motion to defer this application to July 12th, 2022?

So moved.

Oh, thank you.

Second.

Any further discussion?

Karen, none.

Hi.

Alright.

Mister Missel.

Just have one update.

I don't know a lot about the background of this other than to say that my understanding is that the the members of the

and so quite honestly I'm not sure what that means or what the next steps are there but I understand they did disband several years ago and rebanded and now disbanded again if rebound is actually a word so I'm not sure what that actually means for moving forward but I wanted to mention that and then there's a 5th and Avon Street meeting coming up on the 19th

All right.

Thank you, Commissioner Missel.

Anyone else?

All right.

Well, with that, we'll move on to a review of the Board of Supervisors meeting.

Ms.

Thank you, sir.

Candace Perkins, Planning Director.

The Board of Supervisors met on May 4th.

There were two planning items on that agenda.

First was a request to amend a special use permit to allow for the expansion of the Greenbrier Veterinary Clinic.

This item came before the commission at your March 1st meeting.

The Board of Supervisors did approve that request.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Perkins.

Any questions for Ms.

Perkins?

All right, moving on to old and new business.

So we have two items here.

We'll start with item A, which is discussion of a new liaison for the Historic Preservation Committee.

We formally had Commissioner Jenny Moore a servant on that, but with her stepping down, we now have a vacancy.

And so we'd like to make an appointment to that body from this commission.

I know Ms.

Firehock said that she would be willing to serve, but she did not want to take that opportunity from anyone else who really had a strong desire to serve.

So is there a strong desire to

All right.

Well, is there a motion to appoint Commissioner Firehock to be our liaison to the Historic Preservation Committee?

I so move.

Any second?

I'll second.

All right.

Any further discussion?

Mr. Bailey?

Aye.

Mr. Missel?

Aye.

All right.

So you see what happens when you're not here, you get appointed to different things.

That's the way it works.

All right.

Item B, discussion of a new liaison for the AC44 phase one work group.

Ms.

So the AC44 working group, they're first going to meet on May 17th.

There's going to be a number of different phases.

So there'll be five different working groups.

So there'll be a number of opportunities for any commissioner to serve as a liaison through any of these groups.

So it's going to be a six month term for phase one.

Each of the following phases and the work groups will also serve six month terms.

They'll be meeting once a month.

The first meeting is the 17th.

It's going to be from 12 to 2, but the set schedule hasn't been determined yet.

Thank you, Ms.

Perkins.

And I think it's important to know that we'll all have a chance to serve.

There's a lot of work to be done.

So if you don't raise your hand for this one, there certainly will be other opportunities to do that.

I do know that Commissioner Bivins has expressed interest in this.

And we're seeing a thumbs up here.

So is there a motion to appoint Commissioner Bivins to AC44 Phase 1 work group?

So moved.

Second.

Any further discussion?

So, Mr. Vice Chair, Andy Herrick with the County Attorney's Office.

There were a couple items that our office had been asked about that I wanted to follow up with the commission on.

The first of which was COVID-19 protocols.

The chair had asked about that last week.

And despite the fact that planning commissioners are not county employees for purposes of the personnel policies, I did share with the commission earlier today by email what the COVID-19 protocols are for county employees to the extent that that is helpful.

The other item I've been working on that we've received a lot of questions about is the availability for remote participation in the event that a commissioner can't be present either due to an illness or some sort of family emergency.

My thought had been to wait until the new state law became effective September 1, but it seems like there's a demand or a need for

remote participation policy earlier than that.

One of the things, one of the limitations of state law is that there cannot be remote participation under the Freedom of Information Act unless the body has a policy allowing for it.

The Board of Supervisors already has such a policy, but to my knowledge, none of the other public bodies of the county have such a policy.

So one of the things that our office is working on doing is putting that policy

in the rules and procedures of the various bodies of the county.

You may have seen that I had sent out earlier today a proposed draft remote participation policy or I should say an addition to the rules of procedure that would allow for remote participation.

So before commissioners could participate remotely,

Again, in the event of some sort of illness or family situation, the commission would need to adopt that rule.

As I also pointed out in the email, the rules of procedure of the planning commission cannot be amended at the same meeting that they're brought up.

There has to be notice at the next regular meeting.

So that in the event that there's interest in allowing for remote participation, the earliest that that could be done would be at the planning commission's next meeting on May 24th.

So I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about remote participation, about the proposed rule, about the procedure for adopting that rule.

Thank you, counsel.

So turning over to the commission, what's your appetite, initial thoughts and reaction on such a policy?

I'm supportive of it.

We have to at least bring it up to notice that from my understanding that would be discussed at the next thing.

So putting it on the formal docket makes sense.

All right.

So if there's interest on the part of the commission, I think the motion would be to give notice and schedule a proposed amendment to the rules for consideration at the May 24th meeting.

So is there a motion to essentially do what council just said to develop, move forward with advertising a policy for remote work in a simplified fifth grade way?

That's the way I think fifth grade.

I'll second.

All right, any further discussion?

It is.

What we'll do then is if this motion were to pass, we'll just put it on the agenda for May 24.

We'll include it with the agenda package, the proposed rule, and a brief explanation of what it would do.

That is clear, yes, sir.

All right.

And with that,

We will be adjourning until May the 24th.

So you have next week off and look forward to seeing each other in a couple of weeks.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

All right.

I don't think we need to vote.

All right.

I don't hear any objections.

Stand adjourned.