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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAP202000001 Action Letter 2020-05-22 (2)WILLIAMS M U LLE N Direct Dial: 434.951.5709 vlong@williamsmullen.com May 22, 2020 VIA EMAIL bsvoboda(a)albemarle.orcl Mr. Bart Svoboda Zoning Administrator Albemarle County 401 McIntire Road Charlottesville, VA 22902 0mb(a-)stlawva.com Albemarle County Board of Zoning Appeals c/o James M. Bowling, IV St. John, Bowling & Lawrence 416 Park Street Charlottesville VA 22902-4738 RE: AP 2020-00001 R.A. Yancey Lumber Corporation Members of the Board of Zoning Appeals, Mr. Svoboda, and Mr. Bowling: Our firm represents R. A. Yancey Lumber Corporation (the "Company"). In connection with Appeal No. AP 2020-00001 (the "Appeal"), and on behalf of the Company, I hereby request a deferral of the Appeal pursuant to Section 3D of the Board of Zoning Appeals (the "BZA') Rules of Procedure. Specifically, we request that the Appeal be deferred until the August, 2020 BZA meeting for the reasons stated herein. The Company has submitted a package of Special Exception requests that directly relates to the subject of the Appeal. The Special Exception requests were originally submitted in January, 2018. The Special Exceptions require review by the County Planning Commission, and review and action by the County Board of Supervisors. Public hearings on the Special Exceptions had previously been scheduled for March 24, 2020 before the Planning Commission, and April 15, 2020 before the Board of Supervisors. Those hearings were both cancelled due to the COVID- 19 global pandemic. These hearings have now been rescheduled for June 23, 2020 and July 15, 2020, which represents a three-month delay. While the Company certainly understands and appreciates the need for the hearings to be rescheduled, which the Community Development staff had the unilateral authority to carry out, the County Zoning Ordinance does not similarly authorize the staff to defer the Appeal hearing for a corresponding period of time. Only the BZA itself has the authority to grant a longer deferral. We contend that in light of the reasonable requirement by the County to delay the public hearings on the Special Exception requests due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that it would patently unfair to the Company for the BZA to not also approve a deferral of the Appeal hearing for a reasonable period of time. 321 East Main Street, Suite 400 Charlottesville, VA 22902 T 434.951.5700 F 434.817.0977 williamsmu l len.com I A Professional Corporation May 22, 2020 Page 2 If the Board of Supervisors approves the Company's Special Exception application, the Appeal will be moot and unnecessary, as it would resolve the underlying issue of the Appeal. As such, deferring the Appeal hearing until after the Board of Supervisors' action on the Special Exception would allow the Company to potentially resolve the underlying issues so that the BZA action would be unnecessary, thus promoting judicial efficiency. It would also be a prudent decision to avoid utilizing County and public resources unnecessarily. In addition, granting a deferral would promote fairness in the process. The deferral of the Special Exception hearings was unavoidable in light of the Governor's Declaration of a State of Emergency and his numerous Executive Orders prohibiting gatherings over a certain size and other mandatory social -distancing measures. While the Community Development Department staff has now developed process and procedures to conduct public hearings electronically, the level of complexity and coordination necessary to develop such procedures required many weeks for the staff to develop and implement. As a result, despite the Company's frequent requests for the Special Exception hearings to be rescheduled as soon as possible, the earliest that the staff was able to schedule the hearings for is for June 23, 2020 at the Planning Commission and July 15, 2020 at the Board of Supervisors, both of which are after the June 2, 2020 BZA hearing. As such, to deny this request to defer the Appeal hearing, and force the Appeal to be heard on June 2, 2020, when the Special Exceptions will not be considered until June 23 and July 15, 2020, would be unreasonably disadvantageous to the Company and would not promote fairness in the process. By contrast, approving the request to defer the Appeal hearing until the August BZA meeting would promote fairness in the process, in light of the extraordinary situation caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Therefore, we ask that the BZA grant the requested deferral of the Appeal until the August, 2020 BZA meeting. This two -month deferral would be shorter than the three-month deferral of the Special Exception hearings, yet would still allow the Company a reasonable time to adequately prepare for the Appeal hearing. And in the event that the Board of Supervisors grants the Special Exceptions, the Appeal hearing would be unnecessary. Furthermore, this deferral request is not solely for the convenience or personal benefit of the Company, in that it will promote judicial efficiency and potentially avoid wasting the time and resources of the BZA, its members, and the Community Development staff, since the Board of Supervisors' approval of the Special Exception requests would render the Appeal moot and unnecessary. As such, granting the deferral would promote judicial efficiency, promote fairness in the process, would not be solely for the convenience or personal benefit of the Company, and would provide the Company with the opportunity to first resolve the underlying issues of the Appeal and potentially avoid wasting the time and resources of the BZA, the Community Development Department staff, and the public. May 22, 2020 Page 3 For all of these reasons, we respectfully request that the Board defer the Appeal until the August, 2020 BZA meeting. We sincerely appreciate the Board's consideration of this request. Sincerely, 2/aePwu a v Guru Valerie W. Long cc: R. A. Yancey Lumber Corporation 42614003_1