Government Glance: Planning for the future of Montvale School in Bedford; Cumberland County adding more property to park system; Lynchburg to review Enterprise Drive calming efforts
Another look at what's coming up in local and regional meetings in Virginia's Fifth District
Monday is a state and federal holiday, so the week starts with Tuesday. That means eleven out of the 24 elected bodies in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District will meet on October 11. Consequently, there’s a need to split up the newsletter again this week.
Highlights for this installment:
Bedford Supervisors will have a joint work session with the Economic Development Authority and will consider a planning grant for the future of the former Montvale Elementary School
Lynchburg City Council will vote on adding a master plan for the Dearington neighborhood to the Comprehensive Plan and will learn about traffic calming proposals on Enterprise Drive
Cumberland County will hold several public hearings related to several new parks and ensuring land use compliance with others
Nelson County will get an update on preservation of the Gladstone Depot and will have a public hearing on a 12-unit senior living facility on Route 151
Charlottesville City Council will hold a joint public hearing with the Planning Commission
If this is your first installment of the newsletter, this is a weekly summary of what’s coming up at meetings of local government from Danville to Charlottesville and from Amherst County to Amelia County. For the first time in many years, the district makes geographic sense and this newsletter is an opportunity for me to learn more about the community where I grew up.
I’ve been at it since mid-May and I’ve learned a lot. Subscribe and join the journey!
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Bedford County to vote on new body-worn camera system, grant for Montvale School planning
The seven-member Board of Supervisors meets at 5 p.m. for a work session followed by a regular meeting at 7 p.m. (meeting info page)
The work session is in the ground floor training room and is a joint meeting with the Bedford Economic Development Authority. They’ll have dinner together followed by a review of accomplishments made by the EDA in the last year. Other items on the agenda include a status update on suitable properties that could quality under the Virginia Business Ready Sites program, consideration of a tourism zone, and something called Bedford ONE planning.
In the evening session, there is one presentation. Mindy Boyd, chief operating officer for Goodwill Industries, will present information on a proposed new location for a dropoff site for donations.
There are several action items beginning with a contract to replace the county’s body-worn camera system used by the Sheriff’s Department. The contract has been held by Kustom Signals for the past five years but are not satisfied with customer service and for other reasons.
“The Sheriff's office has been unable to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests because the current system has no way of redacting information,” reads the staff report.
The new contract will be with Axon Enterprises and the cost for the new system will be $345,510.
There’s also a request to apply for a Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development grant up to $100,000 to help plan for the future of the former Montvale Elementary School.
“Sitting vacant for nearly 26 years, today the building has become an unsafe hazard and a blight on the Community of Montvale,” reads the draft grant application. “Fortunately, a group of citizens have organized and expressed interested in saving the school building and have sought support for the endeavor.”
The Board had a conversation about the school in mid-September with the Montvale School Preservation Foundation and there’s an account in the Roanoke Times.
There’s also a resolution for an agreement between Bedford County and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development for the administration of a Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) project with Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel). The project is fueled by a $9.2 million VATI grant.
County Administrator Robert Hiss will give an update on landfill tipping fees which were raised to $59 per ton on September 1, 2022 to offset rising fuel costs. A provision in that resolution ties the fee to the cost of fuel, and it’s scheduled to increase to $66 per ton. Hiss writes that’s too high.
“If set at $66 per ton, it may result in the redirection of the waste stream to other landfills, un-gated collection sites, and illegal dumping,” reads the staff report.
At the end of the meeting, Supervisors will go into closed session to discuss land owned by the School Board on Cottontown Road as well as potential litigation that will be filed against the county.
Traffic calming efforts considered for Enterprise Drive in Lynchburg
The Lynchburg City Council will hold a work session at 4 p.m. (agenda) and a regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. (agenda)
First up, Lynchburg City Schools will present a report on the recent accreditations made by the Virginia Department of Education. Five out of eleven elementary schools were accredited with conditions, as were two out of three middle schools and one out of the two high schools.
Next, Council will be asked to consider traffic calming measures on Enterprise Drive, a connector road between Route 221 in Forest and Laxton Road in Campbell County. Enterprise Drive is also the main street for the Wyndhurst neighborhood.
According to Architectural Partners, the Wyndhurst neighborhood was planned in the mid 1990’s on a 500 acre tract that was one of the last remaining bits of farmland in the city. Now, Enterprise Drive carries 15,000 vehicles a day and I can attest that many people exceed the posted speed limit. A study recommends the calming measures.
“Public Works will update City Council on actions it has taken to address safety concerns along the corridor and the next steps needed to identify and implement further safety measures,” reads the staff report.
After that, Council will be updated on the audit of the FY2022 and be briefed on potential uses of a projected year-end surplus. There’s about $23 million of additional funds in the general revenue budget.
“Actual FY22 revenues are estimated to be $16.5 million more than the adopted budget, and expenditures are estimated to be about $6.4 million below the adopted budget,” reads the staff report. “These additional revenues are a result of conservative budgeting during the COVID-19 pandemic, a robust economy, and unprecedented inflation.”
For the rest of the meeting, Council will be briefed on items coming up at future meetings.
Hill City Bikes is requesting to lease a portion of city owned property at 1100 Jefferson Street to expand its operations, including the creation of a new food and beverage establishment. (October 25, 2022) (staff report)
The city is considering an ordinance to amend the city code to ban the feeding of deer. (October 25, 2022) (staff report)
Council is being asked to support a Smart Scale application Campbell County has submitted for improvements on Candlers Mountain Road at Liberty View Lane. (October 25, 2022) (staff report)
There is a proposal to eliminate the business tax for businesses with revenues less than $50,000 a year. There will also be data on what it would cost to extend that to businesses with higher revenues. (October 25, 2022) (staff report)
In the evening session, there are three public hearings and one business item.
Council will consider the addition of the Dearington Neighborhood Plan to the Comprehensive Plan. I wrote about this in the August 22 edition of this newsletter. That takes a public hearing, too. (staff report)
Council will consider a lease agreement with Freedom Aviation for three city-owned fuel tanks at the Lynchburg Regional Airport. (staff report)
There’s another lease agreement between the city and ARINC Inc for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System equipment. (staff report)
Under general business, there’s a resolution on expanding the James River Arts and Cultural District. (staff report)
Cumberland County to consider permits for new county-owned parks
The five member Cumberland County Board of Supervisors meets at 7 p.m. in the Circuit Courtroom at 17 Courthouse Circle in Cumberland. I am grateful that the meeting packets lists page numbers where readers can find things. (agenda) (meeting info page)
On the agenda is a series of reports as well as six public hearings with most of them related to expanding county parkland and creating new recreational facilities.
Two highlights from those reports:
The security system at the County Administrative Building will cost $84,499 according to a quote from A-Tech of Reston. That includes nine security cameras and eleven control access card readers.
The capital budget must be amended to pay for the above item, as well as a new truck for the Building Inspection Department. The amount is $144,168, $33,894 of which comes from donations to the county.
In the first public hearing, staff is recommending changes to the conditional use permit process. Currently there’s no specifics on how permits can be renewed. The proposed change would allow the zoning administrator to make a renewal if there have been no complaints.
“If a complaint has been received and can be substantiated, or if any of the conditions have not been met, the renewal will be treated as a new application, which will require a completed application, fee and public hearings,” reads the staff report.
Next, there’s an application for the Sharon Parsons Foundation to construct a recreation facility, archery range, and campground at 214 Woodhaven Trail in Cumberland. The Planning Commission voted 6--0 to recommend approval with conditions.
Third, Cumberland County is asking for a conditional use permit for a recreation facility to be built on property on which a transfer station operates. There used to be a section of this land that had baseball fields and now the idea is to open a county park with a playground, a shelter, open space, and walking trails.
Fourth, the county is also asking for another conditional use permit for an existing sports complex. Fifth, there’s a second request from the county to open up land owned by the Cumberland County Economic Development Authority at 1874 Anderson Highway. The sixth public hearing is for yet another new 22.72 acre park at 2632 Cumberland Road.
There are another four requests to set future public hearings for November 15, 2022:
The owner of a 3.9 acre property zoned A-2 upon which a convenience store used to operate wants to rezone the land to B-2 in order to open an automotive repair garage to be called Ground Up Garage.
There is an application for a conditional use permit for a 100 megawatt utility scale solar facility on 2,340 acres in Cartersville. This one has the title Cumberland Solar.
There is another application for a solar facility for 115 megawatts on 1,066 acres in Cartersville. This one has the name Boston Hill.
There will be a public hearing on the use of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding. The county has $1.644 million left.
Nelson County to consider changes to off-leash dog ordinance, 12-unit senior living facility
The five-member Nelson County Board of Supervisors will meet at 2 p.m. for the afternoon session and 7 p.m. for the evening session. Both meetings are in the General District Courtroom in Lovingston. (agenda)
There are three presentations to begin the meetings. The first is from the Virginia Department of Transportation. The second is from the Monticello- Area Community Action Agency on their Pathways to Prosperity report. The third is from the school superintendent.
In new and unfinished business, they’ll get an update on the Gladstone Depot Project as well as a Mutual Aid Agreement with Other Localities. On the latter, Amherst County will provide services related to building inspection and erosion and sediment control.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board recently approved a $586,966 Transportation Alternatives Program for the depot project, which involves relocating the structure.
“It is important to emphasize that the CTB policy for TAP funds requires that the project reach construction within four years of awarding the first TA funds,” reads a letter from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s local assistance division.
The Depot will showcase the history of river and rail transportation in the region operated by the Friends of the Gladstone Depot.
Other TAP grants in VDOT’s Lynchburg District are the first phase of a river walk in Farmville, sidewalks at an industrial park in Lynchburg, phase two of sidewalks on Kemper Road in Danville, and improvements for pedestrian safety on Piney Forest Road in Danville.
Then reports from the various officials.
In the evening session, there are two public hearings. One is for a special use permit for a proposed senior living facility on Rockfish Valley Road (Route 151). All of the existing structures on the property will be removed to make way for two six-unit buildings. The Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend approval.
The second is for changes to the ordinance banning dogs from running off leash to eliminate written warnings and to make a first offense punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
In one other meeting:
Charlottesville City Council will have a joint public hearing with the City Planning Commission regarding a special use permit for a car wash on 5th Street Extended. That is Council’s only business on the agenda. While the meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., the public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. More details in the next Week Ahead on Charlottesville Community Engagement. (meeting info)
