The Harrisonburg Planning Commission met on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers. Six members were present (Finnegan, Byrd, Baugh, Dent, Alsindi, Nardi) with one absent (Washington). The commission considered several public hearings and action items, including a special use permit for a major family day home, a rezoning request, a zoning ordinance amendment, a preliminary subdivision, a water service request, and a second zoning ordinance amendment for urban honeybees. All votes were 6-0 unless noted.
What you know, you know, I'll see what's going on. I have a new house. Two minutes. I call this meeting to order for the Harrisonburg Planning Commission on Wednesday, August 14th. Uh we have a quorum with six members present. Do we have any motions or uh corrections to last month's minutes? Actually, it would be the minutes from two months ago. I make a motion to approve the June twelfth minutes. Second. We have a motion to approve. Uh the minute says they're submitted in the packets. And the second all in favor of approving last month's minutes say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? I wasn't here. Okay, and with one abstention from Councilmember Dent, or uh Vice Chair Dent. All right. We now move on to item four A. Uh consider a request for a special use permit to allow major family day home at fifteen sixty-one Gilmer Circle. And I'll turn it over to staff. Good evening. Um, in front of you all, I printed out two copies of or two separate letters that we received from neighbors. Um I've emailed both of them to you as well, so it may have had a chance to review them, but if not, they're in front of you. All right. Um, so this request is for a major family day home at fifteen sixty-one Gilmer Circle. Sorry. The property is currently zoned R1 and is surrounded by R1 properties. Um it is designated low density residential in our comp it's um plan. And then here is an overview from an aerial of the site. And then here is a picture of the site from uh standing within the cul de sac there. Um so when considering a major family day home, it's kinda it's helpful to know that the differences between a major family day home and a minor family day home. The minor family day home is allowed by right within um residential districts, except for the R5 district, um, to allow up to four children to be for a daycare situation. Um the major family day homes are only allowed by special use permit and are for the care of five and twelve children under the age of um between five and twelve children. Um the applicant has been advised that if this is approved, if this request is approved, they'll need to work with the Department of Education for their licensing requirements that they may need to acquire to operate. Um the applicant is uh planning to have their hours of operation between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. and for a care of up to five children. The owner has been aware also made aware that um along Gilmer there is a uh parking zone that um restricts where when people can park on that street. Um the applicant has been made aware that employees and families would not be able to park along the street and would need to utilize the driveway for pickup and drop-off for their um for their operation. Staff believes that uh the major family day home would not have uh would have little impact on the surrounding neighborhood and recommends approval of the special use permit request with no conditions. Thank you. Do you have any questions for staff before we open the public hearing? Questions for staff. Uh just to clarify, so when we were on the site tour yesterday, we saw the the blue zone parking permit, so there's a two-car garage or um a two-car driveway, maybe big enough for two cars. On this for this um site, yes, they could fit um cars, and then there's also a garage that he told me that they currently store a vehicle in as well. Okay. So to get cars in and out of there, it would be using the driveway because they don't the people dropping off wouldn't have the permits to park on the street. Correct. Okay.