Advocates for Charlottesville’s next great places

CADRe / CHAMBER QUARTERLY MEETING

MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

Time: Friday, September 8, 2017, 8:30 – 10:00am

Location: CitySpace

Attendance: 29 members

Introduction:

CADRe needs membersto fill out CADRe form to ensure we have proper email addresses and contact information. Each CADRe Committee has an individual list of interested parties that notices are sent to, but we need to develop a Master Email List.

Members should mark their calendars that each CADRE/Chamber Roundtablemeets the 1st Friday of every quarter.

It’s been more of a year since we had our first CADRemeeting with Alex Ikefuna. It’s time to schedule another one.

SIA (BruceWardell / Susan Krischel):

City hired Form Based Code Institute led by DPZ (“FBCI”) to write a form based code for the First Phase of the SIA. A series of workshops open to the public is scheduled from September 11 – September 14, 2017 at the IX Art Park. FBCI is tasked with writing a code that considers the City’s unmet need for affordable housing. FBCI is looking for input from CADRE on pro-forma budgets and issues surrounding the administrative problems that developers experience in dealing with the City. In preparation for these workshops, CADRE-SIA Committee is conducting its own mini-charrette with property owners in the SIA aimed at identifying a clear vision re: what a successful design process would look like (inc. density, configuration of roads, association w/ affordable housing, etc.).

CADRE distributed the FBCI workshop calendar and requested volunteers to attend the following major meetings:

Zoning: Carl, Valerie Long, Neal Williamson, Susan Krischel

Housing: BruceWardell, Bob Pineo, Dan Rosensweig, Greg Powe, Susan Krischel

Property Owners: Steven H, Frank Stoner, BobPineo, Susan Krischel

Public Works: Craig Kotarski, JuliaSkare, Susan Krischel

Planning Commission: GregPowe, MarkKestner, Susan Krischel

Opening: BruceWardell, Susan Krischel

Final: GregPowe, Susan Krischel

Following the FBCI workshops, Bruce Wardellwill send out a Doodle Poll for times to debriefCADRe on what occurred. FBCI is supposed to product the first FBC Draft by spring. It will then go through the normal public hearing process before adoption by City Council. Final Draft is expected by June 2018. CADReshould do what it can to influence the City and the FBCI at each stage of the process.

Frank Stoner raised the high level of distrust in the community as a potential complication. City needs to adopt a more comprehensive policy for affordable housing before the code is written. SIA Plan’s stated goal for affordable housing is 15% of all new construction, but many people in the community believe this is insufficient. VA State Law does not allow for inclusionary zoning, FBCI plans to incorporate different incentivesin to the FBC Code to encourage the addition of affordable housing. This incentives could include fast tracking the approval process, density bonuses, tax incentives, etc.

Code Audit Process (Ashley Davies):

A City Code Audit got underway last winter. City attorney has provided multiple revisions to the Code. The CADRe Audit Committee has inserted itself into this process and submitted suggestions & concerns to the City about its proposed revisions. The City began this effort primarily as a legal audit, but it has evolved into a major, substantive audit and reorganization of the Code. CADRe has found the process difficult to track. There have been many work sessions with the Planning Commission. A resolution with public hearing authorizing the City Atty to write the actual amendments to the Code is scheduled for next Tuesday. CADRE’s message has been consistent that the City’s Comprehensive Plan must reaffirm the City’s vision, and the Code Audit should wait until that vision is fully communicated. City response has been tepid. While the City understands the concept of waiting, it wants to push ahead because there are things in the current Code that needs to be addressed more expeditiously.

For example, the City is putting forth a resolution to redefine height. Place Design Task Force (“Place”) and CADRehave been trying to work with the City Attorney on this definition and they recently participated in a joint work session to address the definition of height. But, CADRe’s Audit Committee has found the process frustrating because the City is pushing ahead without waiting for CADRe and Place’s recommendations. Unfortunately, instead of seeking CADRe’sfull input and expertise, the Planning Commission has relegated CADReto 3 minutesat end of each session for comment, and they have not fully listened to CADRe’s recommendations. Neil Williamson has been telling the Planning Commission that they’re ignoring the value of CADRe’s expertise, but so far, to no avail. The City is looking at a simplistic view of height without understanding all the issues that play into it, such as topography. This has not been productive, but the City doesn’t seem inclined to do the necessary work. Big questions relating to height have been:

  1. Where do we measure Height?
  2. Does height only matter from the public street or does it look at the building’s average height?
  3. If facades are stepped up, do we deal with height at each level?
  4. In a long building, does height get measured at intervals, i.e. every hundred feet?

So far, consensus has been equally mixed between measuringsolely from the public street and measuring average building height. Measuring heightin intervals has been less popular. We need a strong, joint recommendation from CADRe.

CADRe has identified other important topics for discussion, including: parking, form and massing, density, mixed use, but these definitions are not being discussed. CADRe and Place have also tried to reinforce the idea that the changes cannot just focus on the legal aspect, but must consider design. To date, the City Attorney has stated that she’ll only consider objections submitted before 5/24/17. CADRe’scomments were dated 5/23/17, but came in after the 24th.

CADRe needs to solidify a voice and should consider going up the ladderto ensure our opinion is heard. We must get mobilized. Should we organize a joint work session with the Planning Commission? Should we take our issues up the ladder to Maurice Jones? Can this be done before the Planning Commission meeting scheduled next Tuesday?

Standard & Designs Manual (Craig Kotarski):

City is looking to review and re-write the Standard & Designs Manual. Toole Design (the firm that wrote Streets that Work) has been hired by the City to re-write the Manual. CADReis considered a stakeholder, and needs to clearly identify its goals and its role in the process. We need volunteers to get involved. Alex Ikefuna has asked for CADRe’s opinion, but we need to get the attention of the City’s higher management to ensure our opinions are listened to. We must make sure that the Standard & Designs Manual focuses on creative solutions, isn’t too formulaic, and looks to what can be done as opposed to what can’t. Flexibility in buildingis key.

Comprehensive Plan (GregPowe):

Planning Commission is working on updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The Commission held a series of charrettes with the community in which proposed “hot spots” for development were identified. The Commission also plans to send out an on-line questionnaire to gain further input, but it hasn’t been posted yet. CADRe will post it once it is available.

  • Step 1: thePlanning CommissionCity staff plan to meet 8 times on Tuesdays & Fridays. They want 3 optional directions for changes to the Comprehensive Plan. No consultants are involved, just City staff. The problem is City Staff is already overwhelmed with work.
  • Step 2 was supposed to be a Stakeholders meeting, but this has not happened yet. AlexIkefuna says it will occur after the 3 options are determined.

CADRe needs to push for a focused meeting with the Planning Commission, not just get invited to open meetings. CADRe needs to brand itself better in relation to form, design, and vision. We must speak as one voice. Greg will organize a work session w/ CADRe and the Planning Commission – probably the week of September 18th. Greg is asking for participants from CADRe. It would be nice if CADRe had its own charrette, but this is unlikely to happen since we have no funding.

City Review Process (JuliaSkare):

The group is working with City Staff on the current site review process. The City needs to assign a staff member to be “the owner” of the site plan process. CADRe needs to figure out “who” that owner should be so we can make a recommendation. The owner should: a) bring all staff members together to figure out where contradictions exist so those issues can be tackled holistically, b) consolidate comments so that recommendation are neither contradictory or repeated, c) work w/ streamlining the bonding process at the end, d) work to streamline the SUP / site plan process so it is more in line w/ the design process, e) introduce a software program so developers can know where their project stands at any point in the review process, and f) ensure that once the developer is provided with comments, City can’t go back and add new or different comments.

Governance/Organization (MarkKestner):

CADRe has 150 qualified people on its roster, but we don’t have a governance committee. We need to formalize. The Center for Non Profit Excellencehas provided some suggestions on how to accomplish this, but we need a Board and an Executive Committee that can make decisions and has the power to speak for CADRe. Without that, we have to defer wheneverCADRe is asked to make a formal recommendation. We also need to find a way to get CADRe members to be more responsive.We will put out a Doodle Poll to nominate peopleto a Board and an Executive Committee in the next week. Once that is established, we need to write By-laws, which the Chamber can help us to do.

Communications (BobPineo):

The Committee is working on aggregating who wants to be a member, and develop a form. There will be no dues at this time. We have 150 members now, but we need to build this up. The Chamber will work with us to develop this list. We will also be introducing a closed Facebook page to provide the infrastructure that allows people to talk to the Board/Executive Committee about issues that are important to them. We also need to work on branding – how do we, the community and the City view us? How do we want to be viewed?