The Blacksburg Town Council held a regular meeting on September 24, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. in the Roger E. Hedgepeth Chambers. The meeting included a consent agenda, a public hearing on a special exception for agricultural pets, citizen comments, and council announcements. The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 p.m.
Will council please come to order and will the clerk please call the roll? Anderson, present. Oliver? Here. Board is absent. Hager Smith here? Mattingley? Here. Sat Finn? Here. Watson. Present. We'll begin this evening with our consent agenda. And the first item there is approval of town council minutes for September 10. And in addition, we have a resolution 9A24 approving the Blacksburg Transit Title 6 program. We'll uh adopt that resolution. What is council's pleasure? I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion in a second. Will the clerk please call the roll? Oliver? Aye. Agora Smith. Aye. Mattingley? Aye. Sutfin? Watson. Anderson. Aye. Tonight we have one public hearing, and that is on resolution 9B 24. This is a resolution granting a special exception related to agriculture at 301 Royal Lane. And we'll begin with the staff presentation. Matthew Sampa has the staff presentation. This is a special exception request to allow an agriculture use on a lot that is less than two acres in our one zoning district. The request was made by the property owner, Anthony Grafski, and the subject property is located at 301 Royal Lane. The request was initiated after town council received complaints about farm animals on the property. The applicant was sent a violation letter on June 24, 2024, and the special exception request was subsequently filed on July 7th. The request is to keep one pig and two goats as pets on the property. The subject parcel is a one-acre corner lot with frontage on Royal Lane and Farmview Drive. The lot contains a single family dwelling with a fenced rear yard. And here's an aerial view showing the subject area outlined in special exceptions are evaluated per uh section 1112 of the zoning ordinance. Exceptions can be granted by the town council, and the comprehensive plan, purpose of the zoning district, and intent of the standard in question should be considered when evaluating the exception. Special exceptions typically you are typically use and design standards, such as parking in front of the front building line or buffer yard modifications. And most special exceptions may be heard uh with an accompanying conditional use permit or rezoning and acted upon in conjunction with the action on the CEP or rezoning petition. However, exception requests to use and design standards may be made without an accompanying rezoning or CEP application. And here's the site layout provided with the application that shows the enclosure area for the animals. Applicable sections of the plan should be included in the review of the application. The future land use uh designation of the subject area is low density residential.