The Blacksburg Planning Commission held a regular meeting on October 5, 2021, at 6:30 pm in the Roger E. Hedgepeth Chambers of the Municipal Building. The meeting addressed four public hearings, including the continuation of the Agricultural and Forestal District (AFD), removal of land from the AFD for Northside Park, amendments to The Hub rezoning, and a rezoning amendment for the Midtown Development. The Commission voted 5-0 to approve the consent agenda, the AFD continuance, the Northside Park removal, and The Hub amendments. The Midtown Development amendment was denied 5-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.
Welcome to the Tuesday, October 5th regular meeting of the Blacksburg Planning Commission. Regular meetings of the Blacksburg Planning Commission are held on the first Tuesdays of each month at 6 30 p.m. in the Roger Hedge Path Chambers of the Blacksburg Municipal Building, 300 South Main Street. Due to COVID 19 health concerns, seating in the council chambers is limited. Citizens are encouraged but not required to submit comments to the planning commission by email and view the hearings online or on local television, WTOP Channel 2. The meetings are also live streamed from WW.blacksburg.gov and recorded. Citizens may dress address the planning commission during specific times on the agenda and are requested to adhere to the following. Speak at the podium, state your name and address. Direct comments only to the commission. Please limit speaking time to a maximum of three minutes. And speak only once during a specific hearing or comment period. A wireless microphone is available to anyone requesting assistance. Please silence cell phones, show respect for all speakers, and allow all opinions to be expressed in a tolerant atmosphere. We'll start with a roll call. Mr. Davis. Present. Here, Ms. Jones. Here. Here. So we have a quorum. Hi. All right, so we'll start with the consent agenda, which is the approval of the planning commission minutes from September 7th of this year. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay, uh all in favor. Aye. Okay. Now we'll move to our public hearings. Our first hearing is ordinance 1974, an ordinance continuing the agricultural and forest district in the town of Blacksburg per sections 3300 and 3303 of the town code. We'll have a staff presentation to start. So the purpose of the AFD is to protect, conserve, and encourage the development and improvement of the town's agricultural and forestall lands, production of food and other products, and it also provides essential open space for wildlife habitat, clean water and airsheds, and protection of natural resources. The AFD Act is found in the state code and the language is mimicked in the town code. The AFD was created in 18 in 1982 by ordinance 514. Most recently, ordinance 1534 was adopted in 2009, which extended the district until June of 2019. This new ordinance will be retroactively written to cover the time since June of 2019, as well as to extend the district until June of 2031. And since 2009, there have been six requests for entry and exits to the district. According to state code, the review of the district should occur every four to ten years. This current review of the district will serve two purposes. The first is to continue the district for another 10 years, and the second is to update and correct all parcel information for parcels in the AFD. There are several tax implications of the district. Lands within the district are eligible for agricultural or forestal land use value assessment. That means that those lands that the that the property owner owns will be assessed at a lower rate than the residential rate of assessment. Participation in the town's AFD in combination with the county's land use assessment does provide a significant tax benefit for those property owners. The rollback tax is the sum of all the deferred taxes and interest for a period of five years preceding the change. Council also amended the ordinance in 2018 to make the land use assessment valuation benefits seamless between the county and the town. There is a cost to landowners in the district as there is a benefit. Upon withdrawal or termination of the district, the land is subject to rollback taxes.