The Harrisonburg Planning Commission met at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, in City Council Chambers at 409 South Main Street. Six members were present: Chair Richard Baugh, Vice Chair Shannon Porter, Councilmember Laura Dent, Commissioner Heja Alsindi, Commissioner Kenneth Kettler, and Commissioner Randy Seitz, with one commission vacancy. The commission approved the August minutes, held public hearings on two rezoning requests, considered one alley closing, received staff and liaison reports, and recommended three items to City Council for October 14, 2025. The meeting adjourned at 7:18 p.m.
Four minutes. No, I didn't I was trying to microphone. Three minutes. Let's test the microphones on turn them off. They went on my thing. Okay. Yep. All right. With that, I will call to order the September 10, 2025 meeting Harrisonburg Planning Commission. Um we have all current members present. We have a vacancy, but I guess all six of us are here, so we have a quorum. So the first item of business then is uh review and approval of minutes of the August 13th meeting. Motion to approve. Second. Moved by Commissioner Kettler, seconded. Commissioner Porter. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. All right, minutes stand approved. Move on to new business first item to get two public hearing matters first. Item 4A, request from Anna Surah Veterinary Center to rezone 910 North Liberty Street. Mr. Chair. Yeah, uh the Virginia State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Acts require that I make a disclosure to be recorded in the city records in any matter in which I choose not to participate. Therefore, I'm making the following disclosure. I choose not to participate in this matter because Anna Sarah is a client of our firm. All right. And we'll come get you. All right. All right. So now if the record Commissioner Seitz was recusing himself from this matter. Let everybody get situated and see you. Okay. Good evening. All right. So the site is zoned M1, General Industrial District, and is surrounded by M1 on the north, west, and south, and to the east is zoned R7. The land use guide designates this area as commercial, and the proposed rezoning conforms to the comprehensive plans land use guide. So this the property here is bounded in red. The property north of the 910 North Liberty is a vehicle repair shop. Across North Liberty is a truck fueling station, and to the south is an office building. So the applicant is requesting to rezone 26,800 square foot parcel from M1 to B2C, General Business District Conditional. And a Syrah veterinary center currently operates at the site. If the zoning request is approved, the applicant intends to lease the property to Little Roots Early Learning Center, a child care center. The applicant plans to remodel the 2300 square foot facility to accommodate child care for a maximum of 30 children, ranging from 12 weeks to six years of age. So the existing entrance width right here is about a hundred feet wide, which exceeds the city's allowable maximum of 50 feet for commercial entrances per the DCSM. And the parking configuration is perpendicular to the building to the public street right of way. And the zoning ordinance does not allow backing out into the public right of way. At staff's request, the applicant submitted a conceptual parking layout demonstrating how the property might be might accommodate the required uh entrance and parking requirements.