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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCLE201800079 Correspondence 2018-06-11Bart Svoboda From: Amelia McCulley Sent: Monday, June 11, 2018 8:33 AM To: Bart Svoboda Subject: FW: 6135 Rockfish Gap - Zoning Clearance I'm sharing with you. You can decide if we should share with others. From: Kent O'Donohue <dodonohue@balzer.cc> Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2018 8:00 PM To: Mark Graham <mgraham@albemarle.org>; Amelia McCulley <AMCCULLE@albemarle.org> Subject: 6135 Rockfish Gap - Zoning Clearance Mark & Amelia, I recognize that my email Friday may have taken you off guard, so I would like to elaborate and help you catch up so this can be resolved. To keep things transparent, below this email is the conversations I have had since Friday including the last one with the client asking him how he wants me to move forward. It is your employee (Rebecca) on why this has gotten to this point. What frustrates me the most is I hate that it had to even get to this point. John my client is going to lose his tenant this week if he does not have a Zoning Clearance for the tenant. I have been as patient with Rebecca as I could. But she has delayed this thing to the very last minute. Let me explain the process of getting to this point for you: John came to me in February saying he has no parking and the County was not giving them a Zoning Clearance. He had gone to the County many times and he kept being told different things so he hired me to help him and to eventually do his site plan for this site. I explained to him that any solution he has will be temporary and that he needs to do a site plan and get permanent parking as well as any other improvements he may want and SWM. 2. The first thing I suggested is we meet with VDOT to discuss the pavement being removed as part of the F&R plan. We met with Joel and he said that we had three options to handle the parking: a. Shared agreement with F&R's parking (F&R was ok with this option only after we tried all other options first) b. Shared parking agreement on John's Brewery Lot (I told Joel the County already denied this option saying that different zones cannot share parking. I have yet to see this language. The code that Rebecca kept referring to says nothing about different zones and in fact says that different uses with different hours of operation are ideal for shared parking.... so not real sure how a small office building and a late night brewery do not fit this qualification perfectly). c. That we transfer the F&R entrance permit and surety bond for removing the pavement in front of John's property to John's name. Thus we would tie removing the pavement to John and he could still use the parking in front temporarily until he can do a site plan for the rear. Joel said this is not likely an approvable option but one under bad circumstances that may be doable. Well I suggested to John that we not consider this option due to it being unlikely to be approved. 3. 1 then spoke with Rebecca and she acted like I just needed to submit a Zoning clearance for the tenants to calculate the parking and if we could fit enough parking in the existing spaces up front then she can approve the Zoning Clearance. I repeatedly emailed her about the fact that it would violate the F&R site plans where that parking needed to be removed. I told her that part of the agreement with VDOT for the F&R site plan was that they take out the parking on the old property (now John's property) and they put in a shared access road that John's property could access off of in the future with rear parking. She responded with me later saying that she sees nothing in the plans that indicated the pavement to be removed. I told her to look on the Layout page not the landscaping page. I tried calling her many times to walk her through it and she NEVER answers or returns phone calls (except once late in the game). She finally responded to me that she talked with VDOT and they are not aware of any pavement being removed and we should be good to submit to the county for zoning approval for the front existing lots once I got parking counts to her. 4. One and a half to two months later (mid April) she calls me (finally got a CALL!) to tell me that she did finally speak with someone else in VDOT (probably Joel who I told her to talk to all along) and they confirmed that he cannot use the parking in the front anymore. So here I am in mid April now having to go to F&R to get with their lawyers and John and draft and sign a shared parking agreement with each other. 5. In early May I send Rebecca the signed agreement asking for her to confirm this will meet what they need. She sent it to the County Attorney who approved it late May. She told me we needed a letter from F&R saying they are good with the reduced parking which they were because the proposed parking was always way more then they needed but required by code. 6. Rebecca then responded saying she never got square footages for the uses from me. I had sent them to her TWICE with the break down of each tenant which at this time was a tech company and vacant office space. Again nothing changed. By code still same number of required spaces. 7. After getting that to her she then proceeded to tell me (after responding a week or two later as usual after I had to keep sending emails asking for a response from her that she has what she needs for the square footages and tenant uses) that John needs to resubmit the Zoning clearance application because the coffee tenant dropped out (BECAUSE THEY WERE TIRED OF WAITING!). I told her that the Zoning Clearance John submitted did not specify any tenants. It was for the entire building to get it approved for all office space. I had already provided her the sq. ft. for each space. There is nothing on this application that is tenant specific because it is all being rented as office space. I asked her if this is ok or if I was missing something about the application and to please clarify....for two weeks and many emails I have heard no response on this. 8. During all of this time F&R had removed the parking in front of John's property as Rebecca had put that as a stipulation for the Clearance approval which I was ok with because otherwise if she approved it and it was not removed then he could just use that parking in front and nobody could do anything. I was very open with this and told her I agreed with that. So now it was done. I told her that F&R still was not able to get their contractor to pay and take out the entrance permit. I kept calling F&R and the contractor to try to get it done. But I also do not see how an entrance permit that someone's neighbor has not taken out should impact their ability to get a Zoning clearance. John and I have no power or ability to get F&R and especially their contractor to take out the permit. So I called Joel a week and a half ago and asked him to talk to Rebecca and Adam (with VDOT) to allow for the Zoning Clearance approval without the permit because I did not thing F&R would take care of it in time and I cannot make them but I would keep trying. No response from that ever occurred. Basically saying "I don't give two ****". I finally got F&R's CFO to take care of it Friday and VDOT will have it Monday. 9. The last item needing to be done was recording the agreement. We finally got it recorded on Thursday. I sent it to Rebecca that night and again Friday morning (because I did not see where it went through from my phone). I then recapped in the email that all items were taken care of and to please let me know if there was anything else. Then Adam responds with "Permit still not taken out". Rebecca never responded. And so here we are. You know communication is a very amazing thing. This process could have been cut in half if Rebecca would ever answer or return phone calls (or listen to what I was trying to tell her like the pavement needing to be removed). I cannot tell you how many times in emails I said "please call to discuss so that we can make sure we have a good understanding of everything and all these moving parts". Never a call. Just a few weeks later a email response 2 regurgitating the same stuff (even though I had already gotten some to her) without any acknowledgement of my concerns or the situation that we were dealing with. What frustrates me the most is I have a great relationship with many of your staff. Margaret with ARB is amazing. The engineering staff is great. Alex with ACSA is phenomenal. Greg with Fire is great. Joel with VDOT is great (even though he is not County). The problem I always run into is Zoning/Planning (besides Chris he is quick to get answers) and their unresponsiveness. Its like that entire department is frozen on wanting to make a decision EVER or to just talk about an issue and try to come up with a resolution. And it seems because of that we always run into these problems at the end where deadlines are pressed and no decisions are being made from anyone and I am asking for some help because of XYZ and nobody is willing to work with anybody. Its ridiculous. Albemarle's zoning/planning department is by far the most complacent then any I have ever met. It always seems like they are trying to hide something or that there is some intent that they have but they are hoping to achieve it without having to straight up ask for it, and then at the last second on the final hour they will be like "SURPRISE! hey by the way we need you to do this". I am very much a person that believes that regulation can be good. I believe that contractors, developers, farmers, and just people who do not know any better can do a lot of harm to our environment and the health, welfare, and safety of the public if they are not held accountable through regulation, inspections, etc. There is VERY few times that I push back on comments from localities. And generally if I do its because of something the person did not realize and once I explain it its all good. So what frustrates me about working with Albemarle Zoning/Planning Department is that I try to be transparent and I try to ask them "is this all?, what about this are you sure you have no concern here?, if our client cannot do X then is there something else they can do for the time being to satisfy your concerns and move this forward? Etc? etc?" but time and time again I get no response or I get code regurgitated and then the issues I was trying to point out in the beginning now suddenly are issues to them. No problem solving. No discussion. No effort whatsoever to try to make decisions or solve problems". I certainly hope we can get this matter resolved before my client loses their tenant. Respectfully, D. Kent O'Donohue Jr., PLA Associate Balzer and Associates, Inc. < <-o��ooj N._ F s�^s3ur Phone 540.248.3220 x3405 • Fax 540.248.3221 Cell 540.820.8301 Balzer and Associates, Inc. is providing, by agreement with certain parties, materials stored electronically. The parties recognize that data, plans, specifications, reports, documents, or other information recorded on or transmitted as electronic media, including but not limited to "CAD Documents", are subjectto undetectable alteration, either intentional or unintentional, due to, among other causes, transmission, conversion, media degradation, software error, or human alteration. Accordingly, all such documents are provided to the parties for informational purposes only and not as an end product or as a record document. Any reliance thereon is deemed to be unreasonable and unenforceable. The signed and/or stamped hard copies of the Firms Instruments of Service are the only true contract documents of record. Nothing contained herein alters the terms of any other Agreements between the Owner and the Firm. ©2018 Balzer and Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. The materials attached to this communication are the proprietary property of Balzer and Associates, Inc. and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. No portion of these materials may be used or relied upon by any person or entity other than the recipient of this communication without prior written permission from Balzer and Associates, Inc. John, I will be on vacation next week, but I will still be available on my cell or respond to emails when I can. I sent an email to everybody at the County that is apparently supposed to be important. It got no response except from Joel and Adam with VDOT. It is absurd that they are still holding this up due to a permit that has nothing to do with you. Tim was not pleased that the permit was not done yet and he sent it right over to VDOT on Friday with a check. They should have it Monday, but VDOT is saying they will process it in their regular time. I told the County that I felt this permit thing was way overreaching their limits of power to hold someone up because their neighbor hasn't paid for a permit. Its ludicrous. I told them if you do not have your Clearance by Friday then I would start contacting politicians and the media about this ridiculous overreach by VDOT and the County. I never heard anything from the County and as far as I know the Zoning Clearance is still not received. Joel sent me an email saying that Adam and him were not holding you accountable for F&Rs permit, but yet when I responded "then fine tell Rebecca that you are good and they can approve the Clearance" I have heard nothing. If you would like me to go to some higher higher higher ups and the media I would be glad to do that for you. I have never done anything like this before but this is ridiculous and I have a personal and professional issue with what they are doing. They have to be violating something. The County now has everything they need from us, so I am not sure what they are waiting on unless it really is the permit and Joel is lying. Rebecca is unresponsive as usual. She never responds to phone calls and she never responds to any emails but once a month just regurgitating the same things even though I have gotten the items to her time and time again. She delayed this whole process by two months when she kept telling me we were fine with VDOT to not remove the pavement and to park in the front only for her to turn around two months later and say we need a parking agreement with F&R. Let me know how you would like to proceed. I will call Rebecca or her boss all day on Monday if you like until she gets so sick of hearing the phone ring that she finally answers it. Or if you would like to reach out to them or go down there feel free. Thanks Joel, What you are saying is not even making sense to me. First of all you are saying that you and Adam have 'not made any requirements for the permit to be to activities related to the old F&R property (John's property)'. Well if that is the case then why in the world is Rebecca still not giving me the Zoning clearance for John's property because she needs 'VDOT to sign off on all work and permits being done per F&Rs plans'? If that is the case then why has Adam not told Rebecca that VDOT has no issue with John's property and they can approve the Zoning clearance? That is what she has been waiting for and I called yoy last week asking you to talk to Adam about it because it is absurd to hold up a persons zoning clearance because their neighbor hasn't paid for a permit yet? So please excuse me but what are we even talking about this for if you are not holding John responsible for F&Rs permit? Then why don't you tell Rebecca that? But then you go on to say that you gave us plenty of time to take the permit out and fix the issue. So are you tieing the permit to John or are you not? And what i have told you from the beginning, I cannot MAKE F&R take out the permit and neither can john. We have certainly tied many many many many times. Finally I got the CFO to take care of it and believe he is not pleased it had not been done yet, but again, not me and Johns proboem. So what do you want him and I to do? Just never use his property until F&R finally decides to do what the contractor should have done a long time ago? Get Outlook for Android From: Denunzio, Joel Sent: Friday, June 8, 6:23 PM Subject: Re: summary from our discussion - proposed uses for old F&R building (6282 Rockfish Gap Turnpike) To: Kent O'Donohue Cc: Moore Adam grv49789 Kent, Directing your frustration towards Adam and myself in the two a -mails you sent today is very concerning to me. We have been extremely tolerant of the situation with the F&R entrance and requesting a permit for the past 6 months. In addition, we have not made any requirements for the permit to be linked to activities related to the old F&R building. Also, VDOT has had nothing to do with the contractor, the owner or anyone else not applying for a land use permit. However, we have worked with you and the property owners throughout this project and have been requesting a permit application for a long time. Land Use permit applications are available on VDOT's website along with the fee structure. I am surprised that you would send this e-mail with an expectation that Adam has an obligation to prioritize this permit while we have been extremely patient with you, the contractor and the owner to get this permit in place for over 6 months now. We will process the permit within a reasonable time frame. I expect the same professional courtesy from you as you have received from Adam and me since this project started. If you decide to send a message to your elected officials, please be sure to include a copy to me. Joel DeNunzio VDOT Charlottesville Residency Joel.denunzio(a)vdot.virginia.gov 434-422-9373