To the regular meeting of the Barksburg Planning Commission for Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024.

Regular meetings are held here in the Rogery Hedge Path Building on the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 PM.

Citizens may address the Planning Commission during specified times on the agenda and are requested to adhere to the following.

Please address direct comments only to the commission.

Please limit speaking time to a maximum of three minutes, and there's a timer on the table to help you with that.

And please speak only once during a specific hearing or comment period.

A microphone, a wireless microphone is available to anyone requesting the assistance.

Please silence all cell phones, show respect for all speakers, and allow all opinions to be expressed in a tolerant atmosphere.

Here Jones.

Thank you.

Move on to our consent agenda.

The consent agenda has two items on it.

The first being the approval of the planning commission minutes from November 5th.

And the action is to approve.

And the action there is to cancel the public hearing for tonight, December 3rd, and reschedule January 7th, 2025.

Do we have a motion on the consent agenda?

I move approval of the consent agenda.

Second.

All those in favor?

We'll move on to our public hearing for tonight.

First public hearing is rezoning 243 PRD request from R5 transitional residential to planned residential at 402 Clay Street.

And we have a staff presentation by Matthew Sonpa.

This is a request to re-9 acre parcel at 402 Clay Street Southeast from R5 to Plan Residential for Multifamily Development.

Here's an area of the property outlined in blue.

Comprehensive plan future land use envisions up to 20 bedrooms per acre for multifamily uses.

When evaluating the proposed the proposed multifamily density on the medium density residential area, the proposed density of 45.5 bedrooms per acre is more in keeping with the high density residential designation.

Though the adjacent midtown development also includes high density residential components.

Households earning less than 80% of the AMI are considered low income by the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The proposed PRD is offering to dedicate 20% of the units for residents making less than 80% area median income.

The comprehensive plan also notes that an increasing number of graduate students and international graduate students students doctorate researchers and other young professionals live in Blacksburg live and work in Blacksburg.

These types of residents may require or desire different housing needs than multifamily student housing and single family detached residential housing that proposed PRD includes a mix of only one and two bedroom units with smaller yet adequate living spaces that is that is in short supply in Blacksburg.

In the zoning ordinance, there is a statement of purpose for each district.

The PR district allows flexibility for applicants to determine the best standards that meet the intent of the proposed development and the district purpose.

In exchange for flexibility, the application plan and proffers are binding.

District standards apply to all development within a particular zoning district.

The existing and proposed standards are found on the table and in the staff report.

The applicant proposes a 20-foot front yard setback and 15-foot side and rear yard setbacks.

The proposed maximum height of the buildings is 42 feet.

Open base is required as a district standard in the PR district and as a use and design standard for multifamily.

A minimum of 20% is required.

The open space requirement can be reduced or eliminated based on certain criteria.

Applicant has asked to eliminate the open space requirement based on the properties, proximity to downtown, the short distance to services and transit, the density provides good transition to adjacent uh zoning districts, nearby public open space, and the proposed future connections to the sidewalk on Clay Street and Midtown Trail.

Use and design standards govern the development of a particular use in any uh zoning district.

The use and design standards for multifamily uses are intended to provide an attractive street-oriented development with appropriate connections in open space.

The standard for sidewalk connections states that sidewalks shall connect each unit to the parking lot to other units on site adjacent lots.

The parking areas, mailboxes, and trash and recycling recycling containers.

The internal sidewalks also connect to the future midtown trail and future clay street sidewalk.

The standard for street elevations requires at least one street oriented entrance and contain the principal windows of the front unit.

The applicant is requesting an exception to the use and design standard because the two apartment buildings face internal to the site and their main entryways face the parking lot rather than Clay Street.

In response to discussion at the work session on the elimination of street elevations requirement, the applicant provided elevations to show how the side of the buildings would appear from Clay Street.

The elevations show a number of windows, overhangs, and three different types of finishes that would be seen from Clay Street.

This is a view of the 18 uh unit building.

And here's a view of the 24 unit building.

Standard of 1.1 uh spaces per bedroom accommodates the resident plus guest parking and is typical of student apartment lip the student apartment living where unrelated individuals occupy bedrooms.

The plan residential district stay district standards allow an applicant to propose an alternate standard.

The applicant has proposed a parking ratio of 0.96 spaces per bedroom.

18 bicycle spaces are required for this project, and 22 spaces are uh proposed.

Landscaping is required to be to be provided per the zoning ordinance.

The minimum can tree canopy should be as per similar uses, which is the case, which in this case would be multifamily uses, which require a minimum of 10% canopy coverage.