Board of Architectural Review Meeting   8/18/2026

All right, y'all ready?

Kate, anybody online?

Okay.

Okay so we'll pull that out therefore I'll ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda with the meeting minutes from April and May of this year.

So moved.

I know you were really prepared for a full report.

So I'm gonna turn it over to him and are they online?

Just say no.

No, we're good.

Thank you.

Okay, but then when it meets the floor below, does it start aligning again, kind of like how the drawing shows?

The egress is like, it's right there.

So the trim and everything on the new construction is all going to look like normal.

Yes.

Okay, that was my question, and then when we get to comments, I have a minor comment on the two options.

Okay.

It's the only way we can get the required egress width for the stairs.

So is that an existing beam?

Yeah, and I don't want to mess, the cornice work is so pretty, we don't want to mess with that.

So it used to line up when it was a smaller column, but they had to switch to a six by six to hold up the, because of the egress component.

Yes, and the width of the stairs, it's like, that's as close as we could possibly squeeze it to get it to work.

Well, I guess you're saving the original entablature, so we'll take that.

All right, any other questions?

All right, comments from the public?

No one online.

My quick comment is just that I personally would be okay with both options, but I think the unfinished wood is atypical for this location, so I just want to see it painted.

Yes, that's fair.

And I don't know if you guys agree or disagree, but that was my thought.

So do I hear a preference for that?

I just want to see that painted, if that's someone you guys want to go with.

It should just look.

Is there any particular reason why or?

It's got a kitchen and stuff down there.

Okay.

So is this, sorry just to be clear, out from under the steps is an exterior space just outside of that?

Yes.

Cheri, I was thinking about the porch behind where your building is and has the heavy lattice on it.

It's actually enclosed.

We don't have lattice on ours.

I'll just be transparent about that.

That's not a strong.

And if it is used space, I would believe someone would enjoy the sunlight, too, and the openness.

And the air.

Well, we still have it on this planet.

Good thing for now.

even a diagonal lattice might work but is there, do we want to take a straw vote or do we you know I don't know if both are probably within our guidelines.

I have a preference but I don't think that the solid violates our guidelines.

I have a preference too, but I agree that it's all it doesn't, but the lattice looks better.

But that was where we were looking at, and I said, like, kind of what was the building that your space and that place on Hedge Street seemed the two examples of we could fall back on.

Could we say either as long as the panels are painted?

in depth on it, but we're honestly fine with it.

Would staff need to approve that?

I'm fine with that as long as it's not a dragon or a bright fluorescent dream.

I think the dragon would meet the guidelines.

We'll keep it tame and we'll paint it white.

I also don't mind, I actually would love you guys input on it when we get to that point so I'm happy.

As long as it's not an aardvark or something.

That's not a drag to do it.

The evolution since the last time we looked at this project is really phenomenal, so thanks for doing that.

Very welcome.

In the center there, which I think is nice, and I would like to see the cutouts or something, I think that would be fun.

The owner wants to thank God he's got financing.

Are they on a street side?

It came out pretty good I think, right?

Yes.

Yeah, okay It's as committed so and they're nice big mature bushes, so they're already they kind of they actually transplant it quite well.

I was very pleased with that I'm ready with a motion.

the option to do carpentry cutouts in those solid wood panels and that we will also as a condition of approval require that the original rear porch columns be retained on site for potential reuse and reinstatement as part of the future restoration of the property.

All right.

All right, we'll take a vote.

Ms. Tabony?

Yes.

Thank you very much for your diligence and bringing us back to you.

Thank you guys.

The first one is 915 East High Street, construction of a multi-story mixed-use building.

So that's what I can tell you about Taylor Wonk.

Is all of that exterior, or is any of that green arrow path where you actually enter a building and come back out?

This was a site plan that I found that at least is labeled.

That's where the parking lots are to the left of it as I look at it.

That's the Taylor Walk.

Yeah, you can see it in.

Can I interject something here?

Sure, chime in.

That's all I wanted to clarify.

Is it almost like you don't have to worry about it because it will stay put?

That's a great answer.

Sorry, are you done with your stuff?

And it's surprising how, yes, something the council approved with certain conditions, but it doesn't seem to have been memorialized.

We take it on if there's a next time.

No, that's good.

Give us your presentation, bud.

So is it worth me talking through our design strategy now, or do you want to start digging into some other stuff?

So if you have specific questions, definitely ask us.

And there's opportunity to do more of that, but the sort of tough piece to solve would be if the solution that would satisfy you is a much more significant shift in plane in the facade along that street.

Is that what it was?

Yeah, I don't have a dimension, but that's.

It would be more than one building versus one building if it's broken, you know, the plane shift and materiality shifts and things like that.

So I think it's something that we want to consider especially given the adjacency to the neighborhood and as you've mentioned your wish to be sensitive to the neighborhood.

In your hands, I guess, if you think strongly enough about the length or not.

I also think the fact there's a cemetery right across the street pretty much locks in that there's not going to be another building over there to create any sort of canyon effect at this particular site.

I think you could achieve a kind of interesting urban effect with what you've got, maybe without the break.

I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops.

But I do caution us on the, when we say break up the massing, I caution us on too much fine breaking up of massing doesn't seem to work in a building this big.

So it's a whole different ballgame, but that's kind of the fun of it.

But I would rely less on color actually and more on form and shadow and differentiation in that way.

That would make them look like individual buildings.

And the color also doesn't seem to correspond quite with kind of the massing.

And it seems more random on a monument

That might make sense to change it up.

A module that's maybe two bays wide instead of three or four.

I think, again, that's what I would try to use rather than just color.

What ever happened to cornices?

I can answer that.

So you might explore putting some heavier details in there, give it some deep shadows.

Why do you have that in there?

Three more elevators and completely inefficient construction.

I mean, they let you put in a courtyard, like a big 30 foot deep recess.

That building accepted that.

If you're able to change the zoning code and overrule that I'd be happy to do that.

I would love to address the street a little bit differently than we are now.

I mean, it's fair to say if it's just to show that you can go there.

If it ends up being required to be built, I don't know.

And I don't even know what that looks like.

It is hard to understand.

Well, I think that gets to your comment that we're seeing 3D or a perspective view.

Yeah, it's hard to understand because that elevation is looking at the building at an angle.

I've got a whole page of feedback.

I have feedback on the way.

What I'm trying to do is maybe just go down the list and then comment on each thing.

Jeff doesn't seem to talk about landscape much in his comments.

OK.

I think everybody's okay with the height at five stories.

I am, but I think that was a question from Jeff.

Towards Taylor Walk.

Jeff's staff report suggested stepping down.

The building steps down, too.

He made that comment.

So was that in?

So that was, I just was reflecting something that had been said was... That upper elevation, the left side of it.

The guidelines don't necessarily require it, but I'm just again reflecting something that was said in the meeting a year and a half ago.

I think it's far enough away and it's not necessary, but that's me.

So you can't go higher.

I mean, if they redid their site plan, they could go to...

And then there's a whole other thing we couldn't do.

Go ahead.

So I'd be curious if you were able to do a little more research on the history of these parcels.

I've not researched beyond what Jeff has sent me.

I just, given its context with the cemetery there, I feel like that would be worth a little bit of a dig to look, not literally.

But there was quite a bit of utility work that happened on this site prior to this project.

But the boundary of the cemetery is what you see there historically had not been anything larger.

I guess I would look more to the walls that are in fronting, you know you have other press, in your context you show those cute little walls, those little columns, you know brick or CMU with a

Yeah.

And I don't know if that's also not on your site.

It's not.

OK.

I think that was most of what I wanted to add.

Does it then tie into, is it just, does it then tie into a further brick sidewalk going on down High Street?

So we'll develop that further before we are back in front of you.

Or are you going to have a cistern?

There's trees playing above it.

So you'll be using something like that?

I'd have to refer to this.

I plan to answer that question.

And those are some big power lines on East High Street.

I can look into that.

I don't know if they're just communications or if they're actually power, but I think they might get in the way of your trees.

Well, admittedly, those are misrepresentation of that streetscape in our plan, which is that there will be a planted strip after the street and then the sidewalk.

The sidewalk will move off the street.

The sidewalk will then more or less stay where it is.

And if you're putting this many units using that space, it would be nice if it was actually usable.

There'll be a landscape architect taking over that role.

In other site stuff, we would want to see any sort of exterior lighting.

You guys have a big rooftop amenity and there are some buildings around town that have rooftop amenities and they put big pole-mounted lights up there and because you're so close in the neighborhood, I think you'd want to avoid that.

Yeah, our rooftop amenity is actually something at least one story below the top of the building.

Yeah.

I understand the light issue.

Because the residents across the street may not be able to sleep at night.

Well, it's substantially above the height of their houses.

I know I'm backtracking, but I have a question for Jeff.

Is this being reviewed under entrance quarter?

No, because we do one or the other, and I honest to God cannot remember how we coin tossed it to this.

Strictest guidelines apply.

They all hate me.

This, I guess, rhythm of sort of what looks to be open space and then jetting corners, you know, looks like on an important corridor.

Yeah.

I mean, that facade is next to a historic asset, too.

So

This elevation drawing is honestly even confusing to me at this point, a few years away from being dug into the project.

And as it wraps the corner, it's a moment that you can

Is your plan to include this small two-story building in the final project?

His answer last time we asked was, I'm not sure.

I don't want to misrepresent it by not showing it, but it's also would be a separate building permit and a separate process.

I mean, I'm asking.

OK. Well, that's good.

That's not our choice.

You can't create a remnant lot.

And in order to sign off on the site plan that you're showing it.

I'm just trying to understand.

But in order to satisfy zoning requirements to get site plans approved, we have to show that that is a buildable lot.

But is the intention to build something, like they could not build something there, right?

The question I'm going to have to... We have been asking for the answer to that question also.

And if they don't build it, they don't build it.

I need to design the building.

We'll just knock that out all at once.

It seems important.

Before I jump too far off, does anybody have any more comments on site?

Can he come back for another pre-application with us?

I'm sorry, I'm laughing.

That's right.

But this is a pretty big, arguably the second longest building in the city.

The largest project that will be built probably for many decades in this conservation district.

But I guess my – Are you coming back within three years?

I hope so.

I also don't get to make that decision.

Yeah, I'm aware.

And so there's no hard and fast rule on it.

Carl, you had mentioned you had like a good list of comments and especially maybe if you can focus in on specific things you'd like to see and bring back to us.

But it seems very weird to me that it's.

Well, one, there's units on the building front of the main building that we're trying to not put them in a 10 foot deep.

There's like a sidewalk and then a wall and then another sidewalk and then the building.

Right, because we're basically creating like a light well for the window side of the building, the commercial building, and then grades coming down.

Sorry.

I just have a question about why you're just not aligning to the street on high street?

I think the ground floor could certainly address the street that way and we actually had a previous design, it may have actually been in the three year ago presentation where we did have commercial space that was parallel to the street on the ground floor.

and then you would have to pick a little sliver of a commercial top point.

And then we've got the new, is it the urgent cares across the street?

I mean, that kind of answers the question for me.

So maybe it could be lawyers' offices?

Are there any other comments?

I would just say I think it would be nice to have some larger scale sections and more of them because I think that would help us understand from the street to the landscape to the building how this is really interacting with both High Street and Lexington.

Dan, do you have any other, again, like I started out, do you have any other specific questions that we didn't answer?

Is that the reason why we haven't seen you in two years?

Yeah, site plan and developer priorities and things out of my control.

That's okay.

Yeah.

So we'll come back in five to seven minutes.

We'll get to you.

Sorry.

All right, call us back into session.

We are shared, so.

And so this is a pre-application conference for 301 East High Street.

Sorry you had to stay late, but have at it and the stage is yours.

She's the head of the Village School to tell you just a little bit about the organization.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

We have the precedent image of the Charlottesville Day School, which I think is a nice addition to that street there.

We should do more street painting.

And I don't know what the question is that I'm asking here or what the request is other than if anybody has any creative ideas.

I would like a taller fence.

So we're looking for creative solutions to making that feel right, both from the street, but also from a safety perspective.

Two and a half feet higher.

30 inches moving towards three feet.

And is the fence also for security?

Yes.

At the end of the property where the grade, is there another wall against the residential?

And so we're limited at the sidewalk height of the six foot height, which is proving to be challenging.

Let's finish the presentation.

And then we can circle back and get into it.

I would welcome any comments and feedback on our landscape.

I must have missed a sheet or something while I was looking through.

So there's an existing sidewalk on Third Street.

I apologize.

The goal for tonight for us would just be to identify any questions, any areas you'd like to see either revised, refined, explained in more detail for our next submission as we move towards applying for a COA.

I guess to some degree, by saying that though, are you proposing full 10 foot high basketball goals?

To some degree, we're not going to be able to outthink ourselves.

But I don't know if there's a variance from a code standpoint on the thing that we would show support.

And I would suggest the fence be your aesthetic feature and then post with nets.

Yeah.

So yeah, I think separate the idea and think about some sort of netting feature.

So maybe that just your bird's eye view makes it look a little funny.

I believe we're required now to screen if it's visible or not and I was trying to think about where this would be visible because we are up on high street.

Oh I agree, I agree.

Also the pitch of the addition roof seems very flat so I didn't know what is that pitch.

It is flat at the eave there and then it pitches back at a quarter inch per foot into a hip and then we actually have crickets that catch in the gutters on the side.

What's the material of the roof?

It would be either an EPDM or a TPO roof.

I don't like white TPO.

We would have black, for the record, we would have black metal.

And high street could be ten stories, so don't say never, no one ever.

That's what they get for building ten stories.

It's true, we like white just because it doesn't collect heat.

With regard to the screening, just as someone who lives in the neighborhood walking up Third Street, you would never see, I would think, you would never see any of the stuff walking up that street, any of the utilities or whatever.

So you're going to be code of development requiring some level of screening?

I don't think it's ever visible.

I think it is.

Yes, the front slate would remain and the rear slate would remain above the addition.

OK.

Some repairs to this, it looks like in bad shape on the north side.

There should be lots of extra pieces now.

I could see that the addition becomes the primary entrance, but is the front door still operable?

I think the front door becomes, and I've had this conversation recently, the front door remains sort of the guest entrance and where parents might come and that's where our admin offices are and Eliza's office is in that front corner and then the rear of the building would be for girls and that's where the larger area is and the classrooms and access to those classrooms upstairs.

No new signage or anything on the front?

Probably some signage.

But I think we envisioned something very similar to what was already there, the children's sign.

The sign that was there on that building prior.

Right.

It was a hanging sign.

So if anything, it would be similar to that or maybe just a low, basic sign.

Would that go through the sign regulations?

But it would be a separate review.

That wouldn't necessarily fall to come to us.

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify if you were proposing anything on the front of the building.

I'm sorry.

along that large expanse of concrete to just sort of break up the expanse of concrete but also provide a little bit of shade for the girls when they're eating their lunch and so forth.

Yeah, I would second that.

It looks like you've got some space without compromising the play field at least.

You said something about the crosswalk not being aligned with the opening for ADA, can you clarify?

And so you had to sort of turn, come down, and then hit your curb cut to go over.

But it doesn't look aligned with the opening into that other, is there a reason why it's not aligned with the opening into that?

Over here?

Right.

You stepped down onto the sidewalk there, and that was making that step down, I think, 12 inches.

I guess I was just thinking if there's a way just like if you have a cold classroom of girls going across the street and you get to that one sidewalk and maybe somebody's coming just be nice to tuck in right away into the yard rather than sort of have to jog and accommodate pedestrians walking and so forth so I just was thinking about that alignment a little bit more.

well certainly yeah ideally it would come right across from that entryway and so we'll see if how we can push that as site plan comments on traffic come into play as well right

Have you thought about that?

Yeah, it's north facing.

So the addition is facing north.

I got you.

I have some comments.

So the goal is to keep the kind of warm wood tone?

OK.

That's a good question.

I don't know exactly how that would work.

Is the intention to kind of take that coating and put it on the concrete, or are they going to be differentiated?

But the intent would be that it reads sort of this uniform.

Where is that going?

At one point, we had fiber cement trim board, potentially up in our soffit.

OK. OK, that makes sense.

OK.

And the lighting you show, you guys are not intending to have any high-intensity wall packs or anything to light the basketball court at night?

No.

OK.

It was really just some pretty low-profile stair lighting.

The top image there, is that just like a straight on view?

Sort of the backlit, egress lighting sconce.

And then different question, are there downspouts or how's the roof drain?

I said it's coming down there.

Gotcha.

That was very nice.

It's a heavy two-story cave.

Is that right?

I also was like, are these flush or is there not a detailed corner?

Looks different on each side.

So what we have is at that point the brick is where we're coming directly sort of out of the brick facade and then finishing with eefs and yes it's running down that eefs.

Okay.

And you see that sort of becomes somewhat important here at that view.

What's happening with those?

I'm going to trip over them.

Just wondering, how does that really resolve?

Does that read better as maybe the hearty panel and we sort of accentuate it as a corner window?

Is that a functional...

It's nice and

I mean, it seems very narrow and maybe prone to.

that you want to keep grass, but it's getting a lot of activity.

Not trying to be something it's not.

It could be a favorite.

Does it need to be Astroturf, really?

Sure.

This is my opinion here on my soapbox.

Sure.

I'd love to astroturf it but you know it's not off the table for you all to discuss so I think if someone proposed astroturf I would be bringing it to you if that were just the sole thing they were asking for.

I think we made a mistake with the Beta House.

I agree.

But I do agree with you that it doesn't seem like it needs to be fake grass or it doesn't need to be grass.

It was pretty spent pretty quickly.

I mean, it doesn't last forever.

Well, it didn't last a minute.

I hadn't even noticed that.

I think it's great feedback.

Teller.

I mean, a net may be the better thing.

Rejectable net would be favorable.

I don't know if this would work in this situation but like a hedge like a hornbeam hedge like you can get make those pretty narrow you might have to shrink your basketball court a little bit but they you can get let those get pretty tall and just take a long time to grow yeah but yeah that'd be beautiful I'd love I mean that would be really lovely to have there but it would take a while.

How big a planting bed was a hornbeam made in that location, like five feet?

Oh, it can be narrow.

Three?

I'd say no more than two or three feet.

I think that's a great idea.

Yeah.

OK.

I think I see maybe a hint of it.

Yeah, I like that location where it is.

Unauthorized after-hours use of the basketball court.

There's an existing gate here that would remain and then there would be a proposed gate here.

Speaking as a coach.

An open lot that side.

That parking lot at the back of the courthouse.

But the downspout coming down into the sidewalk, is that encroaching into the, I can just see somewhere down the road someone's going to say you can't put the downspout

I think.

As long as it's not in the same location probably as that pole.

It was really it was like let's break down that facade.

I was sort of holding it against that joint with the brick but that probably causes unknown consequences with the roof overhanging or something like that so if it helps to get it away.