Hampton Planning Commission Meeting - July 17, 2025
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Hampton Planning Commission Meeting - July 17, 2025
The Hampton Planning Commission met on July 17, 2025, to approve minutes from the June 2025 meeting, consider three public hearing items (a zoning ordinance amendment and two use permits), receive a youth planner report, and welcome a new commissioner. All votes were unanimous.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of minutes from the June 2025 Planning Commission meeting was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously.
Public Hearing Items
Zoning Ordinance Amendment 25-0199 (Use Permit Expiration Flexibility)
- Presented by staff (Mr. Hyrie). The amendment allows the commission to modify use permit expiration time frames in conditions, addressing delays related to larger multifamily construction. Unnecessary language in subsection three would be removed.
- Commission Action: Approved recommendation to City Council (7-0).
Use Permit 25-0195 (Trilogy Developers LLC – Multifamily at Former Lincoln Park Site)
- Located at intersections of LaSalle Avenue, West Pembroke Avenue, and West Queen Street. The 275-unit former Lincoln Park housing development site was rezoned to DT-1 in 2023. The use permit requested departures from by-right standards: parking in front yard, 15% fenestration (vs. 20% required), 9-foot first floor ceiling height (vs. 10-foot), and FFE of 36 inches. Staff cited challenges (HUD requirements, flood elevation, wetland credits) delaying the project. Applicant Ross Vieira noted site plan approval was recently obtained and HUD approvals are pending.
- Commission Action: Approved use permit with nine conditions as in the agenda package (7-0).
Use Permit 25-0196 (Fisher's Landing Eats Inc. – Restaurant with Outdoor Dining)
- Proposed a 1,026 sq ft restaurant (with outdoor dining) at 4330 Kikatan Road in the M-2 district. Hours of operation proposed 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily with alcohol sales. Staff analysis noted the previous restaurant (Barking Dog) had legal non-conforming outdoor dining; the current use permit is required solely due to outdoor dining in this district. Staff recommended conditions consistent with a restaurant two zoning administrator permit, including hours 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily. No community meeting had been held.
- Commission Action: Approved use permit with nine conditions as in the agenda package (7-0).
Youth Planner Report
- Presented by Henry Godfrey, covering community policing vs. community engaged policing training, onboarding of interns, retreat planning, farewell to senior youth planner Helena (transferring to Radford University), and welcome to new junior youth planner Sage Holden (starting July 21). Recruitment methods include social media and in-school visits. Commissioner Griffith offered suggestions to improve outreach.
Commissioner Matters
- New Commissioner Joe Griffith was formally welcomed. He shared his background as a neighborhood commissioner for the Phoebus community for six years and expressed enthusiasm for serving.
The meeting adjourned with thanks to the clerk, Miss Cahoon.
Meeting Transcript
The City of Hampton's planning commission meeting for the month of July 2025 will now come to order. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll? Commissioner Griffith. Present. Vice Chair Rogers. Present. Commissioner Brooks. Present. Commissioner Coleman. Commissioner Muggler. Present. Commissioner DeProfio. Present. Chair Harris. Present. Do I hear a motion for approval of minutes from the June 2025 Planning Commission meeting? So moved. Second. We have a motion on the floor for approval of minutes from the June 2025 Planning Commission meeting. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll, please? Commissioner Griffith. Vice Chair Rogers. Aye. Commissioner Brooks? Aye. Commissioner Coleman. Commissioner Muggler. Aye. Commissioner De Profio. Aye. Chair Harris. Now we have public hearing items. All right, thank you. First, I will read the public hearing protocol. The Planning Commission of the City of Hampton takes pride in being fair and courteous to all parties in attendance. It is important that all involved understand how the commission conducts its hearings and how all persons before the commission should conduct themselves. Individuals other than the applicant or their representative who have signed up to comment on a case will have three minutes to present their comments. Speakers must remain at the podium or microphone while addressing the commission, and speakers who have signed up may not donate their time to other speakers. Chapter 14 entitled Reviews by the Planning Commission and City Council. And that has become an issue since 2021 when we had an ordinance amendment to require almost all multifamily uses to require use permit, including all multifamily construction outside of downtown and Phoebus. And this means that there's a lot more use permits that are new construction as opposed to some other use permit types that would be reusing existing buildings or just amending existing uses. And so that because those are new construction, they take more time, and especially some of the multifamily developments are pretty large. But right now we have no ability to amend the use permit time frames for to account for those larger times of or yeah, like construction times. And so this proposal would allow us the flexibility to do that by amending conditions. So this proposed ordinance will maintain the current expiration conditions listed as a default, but it would give us the opportunity to modify the um time frame in appropriate cases. And in addition, it will omit unnecessary language from subsection three of the existing ordinance. So this is how the new ordinance will read. Um, which is the expiration of a use permit, and we will strike the word chapter in the first uh clause of that um and replace it with the word ordinance and then add or in the conditions of the use permit. And this is where we this would give us the opportunity to in the use permit conditions make some of the changes that um as needed. And then in subsection three, you can see that the last sentence of that uh we striked because we thought it we didn't need to have an exhaustive list of every way that the zoning um or like zoning staff would determine uh whether or not the property was occupied.
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