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Home My WebLink About08 16 2011 PC MinutesALBEMARLE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION AND CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE `° kw PLANNING COMMISSION JOINT MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2011 -- 6:00 P.M. ALBEMARLE COUNTY OFFICE BUILDING SECOND FLOOR, ROOM 241 The Albemarle County Planning Commission and Charlottesville City Planning Commission held a joint meeting on Tuesday, August 16, 2011, at 6:00 p.m., in Room 241, Second Floor, at the Albemarle County Office Building, 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville, Virginia. Call to Order: The joint County/City Planning Commission meeting was called to order at 6:05 p.m. by Calvin Morris, Vice Chair— County and Genevieve Keller, Chair— City. Other County Commissioners present were Mr. Smith, Ms. Porterfield, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Loach, Mr. Franco, and Ms. Monteith (UVA Architect — Ex-officio). Mr. Zobrist was absent. Other City Commissioners present were Jon Santoski, Dan Rosensweig, Natasha Sienitsky, Lisa Green, and David Neuman (UVA Architect — Ex-officio). Kurt Keesecker was absent. City staff present was Missy Creasy, Planning Manager. Summer Frederick, with Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and Project Manager for the Livability Project, was present. County staff present were Wayne Cilimberg, Director of Planning; Elaine Echols, Principal Planner; Andy Sorrell, Senior Planner; Greg Kamptner, Deputy County Attorney and Sharon Taylor, Clerk to Planning Commission & Planning Boards. Consent Agenda: Approval of minutes: May 24, 2011 Mr. Morris asked if any Commissioner would like to pull an item from the consent agenda for further review. Motion: Ms. Porterfield moved and Mr. Lafferty seconded for acceptance of the consent agenda. The motion carried by a vote of (6:0). Mr. Morris noted the consent agenda item was approved. Work Session: Joint City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County Joint Work Session: Livability Proiect and Comprehensive Plan Updates - Activities to Date (including Project Kickoff event and Performance Measurement work shop) - Review of Project Schedule - Explanation of upcoming public input series — (Greenways example) Members of the Livability Project Team, including Missy Creasy, City of Charlottesville Planning Manager; Summer Frederick, with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission; and Elaine Echols, Albemarle County Principal Planner, made the following presentation. +mow ALBEMARLE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION -JOINT CITY/COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING AUGUST 16, 2011 FINAL MINUTES 1. Last meeting — Outcomes °'►'` • Where we are - • Brief of previous meeting — what they were asked to do and what we did • Bulleted items from meeting (issues identified by Commissioners) • How bulleted items will be addressed throughout Plan Update process • Where are we now in process (transition to What's happened with Project) • Kick-off & Performance Measurement System - • Well attended • Media • Local & Appointed officials o Kick-off o First public event associated with Grant o Introduced update processes of the Comp Plans and LRTP o Provided overview of information to community o Solicited community feedback re: vision of communities, where communities stand, important issues that should be addressed in processes o Performance Measurement System Event o Presented complex system/project in overview/draft open house format o Solicited feedback re: appropriateness of issues being measured and indicators themselves • Received significant amount of feedback from both events • Comments have been provided in packets • Comments from Kick -Off event have helped shape/direct staff work • In process of incorporating feedback in to Performance Measurement System as appropriate 2. Project Schedule • Overall update schedule (Community event series now — staff takes input/feedback & synthesizes check back in w/ elected & appointed officials in six to eight months— 2"d community event series in year) • Current Community Event Schedule • Dates, Times & Topic are set — Locations are TBD • Sept all set — Date, time, topic, location • Three questions that are the feedback we are hoping to get from the Community — Are Goals & Objectives of Plans still relevant/accurate? Are the strategies being utilized moving the City/County toward the Goals in the most effective & efficient way? What is working? What is missing? • Schedules will be integrated by staff and presented at PC's next meeting Community Outreach Events • Overall agenda for events — welcome, browse, 10 min presentations every hour on half hour, Q&A following presentations, browse. • Understand concerns re: Q&A have been raised — staff taken into consideration and think community wide dialog is important enough to have Q&A. If doesn't work, will regroup and try different approach. • Questions are intended to address clarity of content • Evening's Greenway discussion intended to be a smaller example of Community Event 4. Greenways Discussion • Context of map o Produced from City/County resources o Not easy — quite a few challenges, but provided opportunity for expanded dialog & interaction o Mere fact that resource exists is incredibly important ALBEMARLE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION - JOINT CITY/COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING AUGUST 16, 2011 FINAL MINUTES o Purpose of Map o Overall/Big Picture view of Greenways and Natural Systems o Provides additional information for decision making processes — help to prioritize projects/goals o Highlight areas of possible joint ventures/funding • Facilitated Greenways conversation o What the map shows o Greenways, trials, natural systems — physical and natural connections/relationships o Areas of connections (Example) o Areas of gaps (Example) The Planning Commissions held a discussion with staff, asked questions and provided comments. Public comment was received from the following person: Neil Williamson, with Free Enterprise Forum, agreed with some of the points brought up with regard to goals and data being critically important. It is a question of chicken and egg and the need to have the data to go towards the goals. As he sees the process moving forward, it seems they are coming to meetings that seem to be planning meetings. He was concerned that he did not hear the discussion of the goals. There should be a substantive discussion because they have 67 pages of goals in Albemarle County. There are probably about 35 to 45 pages of goals in the Charlottesville. The community needs to have that high level discussion early rather than later to be able to understand both the Sustainability Grant and what they are trying to achieve. Comments following staff presentation for City/County included the following: 1. Look at City and County goals side -by -side to see how they line up or don't. Do this first. 2. Have City and County define and agree to the goals and objectives as early as possible in the project. 3. Make sure you have the right performance indicators to measure success of existing goals. Add performance measures as you can. 4. Identify trails that would likely never be built so that decision -makers can decide whether those trails should be included in the plan. 5. Provide for prioritization of projects. 6. Show where the land use plan comes into conflict with existing zoning that may prohibit trails and such uses from being realized. For the Workshop 1. Show County Development Area boundaries on maps and include the Village of Rivanna. 2. Add landmarks and some street names to the map to help people better orient themselves. 3. Have a "context map" — one at a different scale than the up -close ones. 4. Differentiate between existing and proposed trails. 5. If you are showing side -by -side goals at the workshop, don't put the entire list of goals on the page. Provide a manageable number or "uber" goals for comparison. The public can't effectively provide feedback on long lists. 6. Have series of maps where similar items are clustered together to illustrate a topic, such as steep slopes with streams and parks with greenways, etc. 7. Goals and objectives should be reflected on the maps. For example, if the goal is to "promote significant natural or man-made corridors" identify the significant natural or man-made corridors on the map. 8. De-emphasize the roads. 9. Show conservation easements. 10. Provide a laptop computer for people to type in comments. ALBEMARLE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION - JOINT CITY/COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING AUGUST 16, 2011 FINAL MINUTES 11. Have maps illustrate how well goals and objectives are currently met. For example, if linking the parks with greenways is done or already planned, show it. 12. Help ensure that the public knows that they did not need to stay for the entire length of the three hour workshops, just one hour. For the Workshop — Comments from Commissioners After Meeting 1. Comment from Commissioner after the meeting: enlarge the "up -close" map even more to help people better orient themselves. 2. Comment from Commissioner after the meeting: when you are getting input from the public, make sure you have them write down enough information to understand what they are saying. Post -it notes don't always convey what a person is really trying to say. Usually more clarifying language is needed to understand what was intended. 3. Comment from Commissioner after the meeting: in order to have a frame of reference on comments, it would be good to know where the respondent resides —in Charlottesville, in a Development Area of Albemarle County or in the Rural Area of Albemarle County. For the on-line version of maps and information 1. Put the maps on the county's online GIS website and continue to provide on-line opportunities for comment. 2. Provide longitude and latitude for use with Google Earth. See if you can get the Google Earth function to work on the City/County maps that are put on-line. Project team and staff to take comments and suggestions into consideration as outlined. No formal action required. Joint Meeting Adjournment: The joint meeting of the City and County Planning Commissions was adjourned at 7:29 p.m. New Business: • THE NEXT ALBEMARLE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING WILL BE ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011. Adjournment: With no further items, the Albemarle County Planning Commission meeting adjourned to August 23, 2011, 6:00 p.m., Auditorium, Second Floor, County Office Building, 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville, Virginia. V. Wayne Cil berg, Secretary (Transcribed and Recorded by Sharon C. Taylor, Clerk to Planning Commission and RlaKning Boards) ALBEMARLE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION - JOINT CITY/COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING 4 AUGUST 16. 2011 FINAL MINUTES