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Home My WebLink AboutCCP202200001 Application 2022-10-28Application forOMRI-� Comprehensive Plan Compliance PROJECT NAME: (how should we refer to this application?): _Botanical Garden of the PROPOSAL (use separate sheet, if needed): _Please see COMPREHENSIVE COMP PLAN LAND USE/DENSITY: The land use recommendation for the Botanical Garden site/area is "Public Open Space" in the Places29 Master Plan, Future Land Use (South) Map. The Parks & Greens Systems Maps recommends this area for "Parks & Open Space." LOCATION: _950 Melbourne Road Charlottesville, VA TAX MAP PARCEL(s): 061 MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT: Contact Person (Who should we call/write concerning this project?): _Jill Address PO Box Daytime Phone (434 ) _953-0060 Ext 2 Owner of Record City of Charlottesville City _Charlottesville State VA Zip _22906_ Fax # C__) _n/a E-mail i.tiischman.marks@piedmontgarden.org_ Address _PO Box 911 City _Charlottesville State _VA Zip _22902 Daytime Phone (434___) _970-3101 Fax # (434—) 970-3890 E-mail _bentley@charlottesville.gov Applicant (Who is the Contact person representing?): _Botanical Carden of the Piedmont Address _950 Melbourne Road City Charlottesville State VA Zip _22901 Daytime Phone (434 ) 953-0060 Fax # ( ) _n/a E-mail_i.trischman.marks@piedmontgarden.org Does the owner of this property own (or have any ownership interest in) any abutting property? If yes, please list those tax map and parcel numbers _Yes, in the City of Charlottesville: Parcel ID - 46000 1200 and FOR OFFICE USE ONLY ❑ Compliance with the Comprehensive Plan (CCP) ❑ Special Use Permits: El Concurrent review of Site Development Plan? History: ❑ ZMA's & Proffers: ❑ Letter of Authorization ❑ YES ❑ NO j Botanical Garden --Wff/°fthe Piedmont September 20, 2022 Community Development Department 401 McIntire Road Charlottesville, VA 22902 BOARD OF DIRECTORS To Whom It May Concern: Consi Palmer President It is our pleasure to submit this letter of introduction and narrative of the Diego Anderson Botanical Garden of the Piedmont (BGP) as a part of the Albemarle County Vice President Comprehensive Plan Compliance application. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont Jude Garzolini is located at 950 Melbourne Road in Charlottesville. Some of the land for the Secretary Garden is owned by the City of Charlottesville, but is located in Albemarle Brion Friedman County. BGP has a forty- year land lease with the city. Treasurer Carol Carter Occupying over 14-acres in the eastern section of Charlottesville's McIntire Park, Past President BGP is in the early stages of building an urban oasis and community resource for Carolyn Achenbach all residents of and visitors to Greater Central Virginia. The Garden will be an Jack Bocock accessible, admission -free community hub and discovery center, celebrating the Deborah Bell Burks flora of Central Virginia and offering learning and entertainment opportunities Kristin Davis Julia Green for all. The mission of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is to invite all Steve McLean community members and visitors to engage in nature, to educate and inspire Laura Peet Rodney Shirley through the beauty and importance of plants, to advance sustainability, and to Rodney Christina Teague promote human and environmental well-being. Jay Townsend Keith Woodard Our founders recognized that Central Virginia area lacks a central, well -planned, Jill Tdschman- natural area. They also recognized that modern botanical gardens have evolved Marks and can actively help communities deal with community challenges b creating Executive Director Y P tY $ Y $ food forests, working with schools and camps to develop curricula, partnering with senior centers and providing green industry job training programs for at risk and challenged adults. Through a community input process, the Board developed an understanding of how the community envisions the built Garden and what guiding principles should frame the overall design, including: • a place of healing and restoration • a place to engage the natural world • a community destination that is interconnected with Central Virginia • a memorable, unique landscape experience that provides a venue with multi -generational appeal for civic and family events. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org In 2018 the Board of the BGP employed two design firms, Mikyoung Kim of Boston and Water Street Studio of Charlottesville, to help turn these ideas into a schematic plan. Their results turn a challenging, once -neglected site into a plan that received a national honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2019. The plan incorporates the community's desire to have a place to learn, play, explore, and gather. It combines accessible community spaces, like an amphitheater and an event green for celebrations, classes, and programs that will support the Garden financially, with more contemplative areas like flowering groves, woodland trails, meadows, mushroom, fern, and moss gardens, and healing gardens. A children's discovery area, including a reading nook, will be a popular gathering space. A restored, perennial stream, an aquatics garden, and a tree canopy walk will provide places for exploration and learning. Foundational to the plan is a commitment to using native and site adaptive plant species that will support the ecosystem and provide habitat. With barebone amenities, the Garden is already demonstrating the powerful intersection of people and place. Since January of 2019, our team of over 400 volunteers has been stewarding the land by removing trash and invasive species, and by creating walking trails and gathering areas. At our current rustic site, without a building, power or running water, we are serving the community by partnering with other area non -profits and organizations to provide quality programming in arts, literacy, and STEM. Our community partners include the Scouts, the Jefferson Area Board for the Aging, Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Abundant Life Ministry, Jefferson -Madison Regional Library, the Community Lab School, Lafayette School, local home school networks, the YMCA, and the Rivanna Conservation Alliance. We offer these programs, as well as garden tours and bird, pollinator, and tree identification walks, free of charge. We look forward to the opportunities enabled by our future beautifully designed facilities and garden space to expand and enhance our programming and outreach to the community. We invite you on a tour of the Garden to give you a sense of the scope and our goals for the Garden. We are excited about the potential for this modern botanical garden to be a public asset, supporting and contributing to the well-being of the residents of our region and connecting them to the natural environment. Sincerely, Consi Palmer Jill Trischman-Marks President, Board of Directors Executive Director Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org op Botanical Garden 1I/°frhePiedmont Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan Compliance Project Background and Narrative PROJECT BACKGROUND: Located at 950 Melbourne Road in Charlottesville, Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is sited on land owned by the City of Charlottesville, some of which falls within Albemarle County. N�.E�NN�RD� IF OR Rw°D"T,.a°� D ~ IF 9m0 V'yo � l 8U4V MOKcoA�Ha'urm Fowl R((11 Draper Aden Associates u?mowm\ 5 a PLA SH GAR PROPOSEC LEASE PARCELN H N MCI fl ARK FORTNE OOTANILLL O ETHEPIEDMOHT ACRO8 PO"ON90F p9 PRp1EGT: i14Tie 83 $HEFT COUCH f AL6ENARLE LOOMVPARCEL p810606D9L0.189A0& C OFCHARLOTTESVILU PARCELS"M1. ,GfiGMM`6I A`1A CKI SCALE: 1'=150' 20F2 The area of development on the land within Albemarle County is for the Children's Discovery Garden, the Garden Pavilion (a small, three -season event space) and the parking area with its central entry garden for capturing and filtering pavement surface water. These elements are all considered Phase I of the Garden construction. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org Botanical Garden -"40/°f«ePiedmont The map below gives context of the Garden site within McIntire Park East. Charlottesville High School is located on the other side of the railroad tracks from the Garden. The Charlottesville High School Football Stadium and the City of Charlottesville Department of Parks and Recreation Landscape Shed are across Melbourne Road from BGP. The linear park adjacent to the John Warner Parkway is across the parkway from BGP. a.A. ..... �.1. mil `A x1 BmF _ u - -- - In the Fall of 2021 when the land lease was negotiated with the City of Charlottesville, the Albemarle County Community Development Department completed an assessment of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont proposal and offered the following information: The proposed activity is considered a by -right use (a public use) under the current zoning and no Special Use Permit will be required. A Compliance with the Comprehensive Plan review will be needed (a review and finding by the County Planning Commission of the public use's substantial accord with the County's Comp Plan, as per Va. Code 15.2-2232). A Site Development Plan for the development of the site will need to be submitted and approved by the County. Since the Fall of 2021, BGP revised its Schematic Plan to incorporate the additional land assumed during the land lease negotiation as well as the plans for the stream restoration, trails and bridge the City will be constructing. The revised Schematic Plan is included in this Comprehensive Plan Compliance Application below. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org A >r' Op Botanieal Garden �I/°f«ePiedmont § 4 Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org op Botanical Garden 1I/°ffhePiedmont The land -use recommendation for the Botanical Garden site/area is "Public Open Space" in the Places29 Master Plan, Future Land Use (South) Map. There is no development density associated with the land use designation. In the Master Plan, the Parks & Greens Systems Map (South) also recommends this area for "Parks & Open Space." PARKS AND GREEN SYSTEMS MAP Jllilllllllll,,,- SOUTH Below is a list of the typical uses identified in the Master Plan for these land use designations. Institutional uses are considered an acceptable activity ("permitted" use) if they are "recreational in nature" as per the Land Use Table 2. A portion of that table is also provided below. Institutional. This designation allows for a range of civic uses, such as schools, libranes, parks, recreational facilities, water treatment facilities, and other sin filar uses on County -owned properties (see Land Use Table LU2). Prienary uses: schools, libraries, parks, recreational facilities, and warer tree teem, and similar facilities. Secondary uses: any related facilities that support the primary uses. Parks and Public Open Space. This designation allows for a range of public recreation and open space uses. This designation is used in Centers and the areas around Centers to provide for public Chapter4. Futuna Land Use Man and Transportation Network . Page 4-7 Maae,211 A Master Man for Me Northern Development Areas . Adopted February 2, 2011 maaa.e.xn. to ears activities. It is also used in combination with Privately Owned Open Space to define the edges of some Neighborhoods (see Land Use Table LU2). The Fume Land Use Map shows Public Open Space as a lighter, brighter green (than Privately Owned Open Space described below). Prinary uses: public open spaces, such as parks, greenways, trails, and other public open spaces. Secondary uses: related instimnonal uses. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org F'' Land Use Neighborhood Designations Urban Mised Use Urban Density Dens7A—�I.—. 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P. .E • Tot ids w active buvnavua m —mmoes of nuvressea Mps— y.B{Ypuq W pm.eeewln IMmat • ExtOeM.Whood ne mvea4m areas snowe Ce • agar 1-1—momamm IeaidMY as • F,ryna. NWe by plane mwaat. aovle.e with aeleencm :Mule be pow. ant paadimcromad ueWMetypn.paa uw —cenoal u...lmar b. thni often apac. a NpppyartaPx• mEcorsf • Neaen,n sped abaidbxinn Y.uae NOW Wama, nWe ofuxiYscee of naanaa • paap.di area mry • P,oM.W aam may Ina gamrw,.,h.esm nave gmraw,fam. of prowoa aXemam navel aa:liana. trevtl nu0n mW. 022911 op Botanical Garden �I/°f«ePiedmont PROJECT NARRATIVE: Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is being planned as a place for everyone to learn, play, explore, relax and gather. The Garden will be an admission -free community asset that is open to the public year-round, almost every day of the year. It will combine accessible outdoor community garden rooms and interior gathering spaces. The lease agreement between the City of Charlottesville and Botanical Garden of the Piedmont (BGP) requires that there is no admission fee to access the Garden. Therefore, having the large garden event spaces, the main event green and amphitheater, available to provide public events for performances, seasonal celebrations, and classes as well as for rental for private and corporate events, like weddings, conferences, and retreats, is vital to sustaining the Garden financially. The Garden will also include smaller areas to serve as outdoor classrooms for exploration and learning such as a children's discovery area, the soon -to -be - restored perennial stream, an aquatics garden, and a tree canopy walk. In addition, there will be less programmed, contemplative spaces like the healing gardens, flowering grove, pinetum, woodland trails, meadow, mushroom, fern, and moss gardens, and a meadow of native wildflowers and grasses. Our public buildings will include a visitor's center which will house our offices, meeting rooms, library/exhibit space, toilets, catering/cafe areas, and a gift shop; and a garden pavilion which will be a small, three -season event space with toilets, a heat source, and a wet lab for STEM programming. BGP is currently in the process of hiring an architecture firm to design these buildings, but it is anticipated that the garden pavilion will be about t,000 sf and the visitor's center will be a multi -story building between 7,000 — 15,000 s£ The deck adjacent to and connecting these two buildings is approximately 7,000 sf. In addition, we will have a landscape maintenance shed at the Garden for tools and equipment, approximated at 450 s£, and a service shed for programming equipment storage of approximately 120 sf. Another requirement by the City of Charlottesville in our lease agreement is that our parking area accommodate bus parking. Our Schematic Plan currently provides parking for eighty-two vehicles, four handicapped parking spaces and three buses. We have begun conversations with Charlottesville Area Transit about establishing a public bus stop at the Garden in the future. Lighting will be installed in the Garden parking areas but will only be used when the Garden is open for special evening events. The anticipated hours of operation on a typical day will be from 9:oo — 6:oo with hours extended at either end of the day to accommodate special events. At this time, we anticipate four large Garden events annually — a fall festival, winter light display, spring celebration, and summer exhibition. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org Botanical Garden _M40/°f«ePiedmont West Virginia Botanic Garden in Morgantown, West Virginia, is similar to BGP in that there is no admission fee to enter the Garden. They are also located in a city with a large university. West Virginia Botanic Garden is open dawn to dusk, 365 days/year. They provided the following data of their Garden from May 12th — September 16th, 2022, their busiest time of the year: Busiest times of the day: 9:oo am — 6:oo pm Busiest days of the week — Saturday & Sunday, divided evenly and representing 37.4% of total weekly visitation Average number of cars visiting site daily -202 Minimum number of cars visiting daily — 165 (Mondays and Tuesdays) Maximum number of cars visiting daily — 229 (weekends) The Executive Director from West Virginia Botanic Garden also noted, "our data shows that traffic is starting to dip a bit now that summer blooms are fading. I expect things to hop up a bit in October when we do the Fall Children's Festival, Scarecrow Spectacular, and Howl-O-Ween Doggie Trick or Treat. Then it will nose dive after that until the spring ephemerals begin drawing people back. If I had to make a guess at this point using the information we have collected, I would suspect our annual visitation could be as high as 100,000." During the public input sessions that spearheaded the design of the Garden and the features in it, the community responded with feedback about what those features will look like. Based on that feedback, the symbol adopted for BGP is a nest — one woven together of natural materials and sitting lightly on the land. For each of the features requested by the community, a selection of what those features could look like were voted on by the public. For clarity, the images included below do not represent exactly what our features will look like — they have not been designed yet — instead these images indicate the spirit of those features. The first Garden feature we plan to construct is the Children's Discovery Garden. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org Op Botanical Garden 1I/efthePiedmont Botanical Garden of the Piedmont. Master Plan Revision -Children s Playground v_ 4W e „ IFlnme we1e1 . � Sartel Watwrali NuA;1•r f�1 •• aitlpe�'• T� a� pt Linamm yr if. rnuc;anrn Children's Playground: • Encourage multi -sensory learning and discovery in nature • Inclusive play for all ages and abilities • Incorporate natural, local material as much as possible • Integrate water feature that uses filtered water • Integrate raised beds, area to set up tables (outdoor classroom), reading nook, large lawn area, tree house,jumping stones, maze, and service shed dill Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org op Botanical Garden �I/°f«ePiedmont The Garden Pavilion is another of the first features to be constructed in order to provide three season events a weather secure location. Precedent images for the BGP Visitor's Center and Garden Pavilion Architecture: Other precedent features for the Garden include the Main Event Green which will be de approximately 150 — 200 people: Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org Igloo AIWW Afft A 7 I Op Botanieal Garden �I/°f«ePiedmont Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org Botanical Garden -aillift;V/°fthe Piedmont Botanical Garden of the Piedmont: Master Plan Revision - Stormwater & Rain Garden Strategy PREa We welcome any other questions you may have about Botanical Garden of the Piedmont and invite you on a tour of the Garden to see the site in person. To schedule a visit, please contact the Executive Director, Jill Trischman-Marks, at 434/953-oo6o ext. 2 or by email: i.trischman.marks(a)piedmontgarden.org Botanical Garden of the Piedmont * PO Box 6224 * Charlottesville, VA 22906 infoPpiedmontgarden.org * piedmontgarden.org