The Harrisonburg Planning Commission held a work session on the Zoning Ordinance Update Project at City Hall, Room 011, convened at 6:00 p.m. and adjourned at 8:12 p.m. Six commissioners were present (Richard Baugh, Shannon Porter, Laura Dent, KC Kettler, Randy Seitz, and Rob Jezior, who participated remotely from Scranton, Pennsylvania); Heja Alsindi was absent. No public comment was taken. The agenda and minutes contain conflicting dates (September 15 and September 25, 2026), but this summary uses the provided meeting date of September 22, 2026. Discussion focused on proposed zoning district names and draft Articles D and H of the revised zoning ordinance.
Right. And with that, I will call to order September 15th, 2026 meeting at this point. All members except for Commissioner Al Cindy, but uh Commissioner Ches here virtually would love to participate virtually. So I was getting to read into the record what we need to do to appropriately have them participate. Yes, thank you. So the statement is in accordance with the planning commission's adopted policy for remote participation. Commissioner Jezior has requested to participate remotely in this meeting uh due to travel that prevents his physical attendance. He will participate remotely from a private location in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is not open to the public. A quarum of the planning commission is physically assembled uh at one primary meeting location, and arrangements have been made for the voice of Commissioner Jezior to be heard by all persons at the primary location. So uh moved by Vice Chair Porter, seconded by council member. Yeah, any discussion. All in favor of allowing Commissioner Jesuit to participate virtually say aye. Opposed no hearing done. Congratulations, it's official. It's no Iraq, but yeah, a little closer, yeah. All right, with that, our first uh order of new business brief recollections on prior work sessions. Yes, this is again this is an opportunity. Uh if there's anything that you thought of from the last meeting uh that you wanted to bring up, feel free to have that discussion now. If not, we can move on to the next event update. Hearing anybody's move three B review of zoning description. Um yeah, so and in your agenda packet, there was a memorandum that described what staff had recommended at our last meeting. Uh so that that list within the memorandum has not changed. Um what we are offering you is Commissioner Seitz had reached out to the Harrisonburg realtor, say it wrong, association. Thank you. Um he's reached out to them and they provided some feedback, uh, which was included in the packet. And so with that, I was to ask if you all want to have any discussion about it. So they have a standing local, they have a standing committee that they call their legislative action. Um primarily typically is for state issues. They were very appreciative of the chance to comment on this basic. They've been aware of the process and you know right. So again, I think that and they they took it very seriously. The first three lowest density residential listers are relatively similar, so I think certain time. So let's uh start off any anybody had comments on the first three suggestions. There is this in other region. Yes, uh the link was the page 10. There it is, that's a word. Oh, they say residential to the neighborhood. Um whether it's immediately limited or residential. Is there a particular reason for the staff strictly or one of the others? So they should have all been it's suburban neighborhood, flexible neighborhood, urban neighborhood. Um the idea was for the first three to all have the same endings and neighborhood, and then the other two to be um community. residential is there a particular reason for south strip maybe or one of the others so they should have all been it's suburban neighborhood flexible neighborhood urban neighborhood um the idea was for the first three to all have the same endings and neighborhood and then the other two to both the um community uh i guess the idea with the two community districts with more I guess in any of our kind of garden apartment developments or town home developments if you're standing within one of them you can pretty clearly see where the edges of that development are like they are contained communities under themselves uh so that's kind of the distinction we were trying to draw with the names and i did notice to your point commissioner kepler is that some of the names that we had i don't know what what happened in the transcription this isn't actually the names actually we had uh similarly with uh mixed use center we propose mixed use downtown so you're you're correct that yeah pointing that various zones which is um i would say what's called didn't really don't like well you know it's interesting because i i talked with them about that and i mean for me as somebody that wants more density more walkability things that are generally associated with urban i can understand i understand for myself where that dislike of suburban comes from but they made the point the reality of it is that is the house type the lot size the house type it is a suburban model of living i mean you know i mean we have a limited number of deadworm street layouts and stuff like that but yeah smooth bedworms um yeah we don't have a lot of that but from the from the communicating very concisely as to what the texture of the neighborhood is they felt suburban does this good job changing yeah but that's going to pack all of them not just that one get less suburban slightly more dense the layout of the neighborhoods are still the same and it's still like every lot is going to have its own driveway i think general what they were going for is how quick how well or how directly does the name communicate to the typical resident or perspective in their case perspective owned by what the fabric of the neighborhood is so they think somebody would want the square oh absolutely even in city i mean if somebody in the city of Harrisonberg can live on you know big lot with three foot setbacks all the way around Fed's backyard you know not everybody wants to live 10 feet from their neighbor and you know a half a block from downtown or definitely space yeah basically think we're not a suburb in the city but then there's suburban feeling areas it's from your discussion so there's something nothing other than um you know what they have there in their comments that identifies the parameter residential use and lower intensive development pattern while avoiding language that may imply preservation of a particular neighborhood character that's important so I think that speaks more to change over time with APUs and other types of things as well too these residential zones still be allowing mixed use and what do you mean by mixed use on the first floor not the state um mr russ that's where we preserve the neighborhood commercial yeah it was it mixed use in urban residential we have other types of things as well too these residential zones still be allowing mixed use and what do you mean by mixed use and different residential uh apartment building with detail on the first floor not the state uh mr russ that's where we reserve the neighborhood commercial yeah was it mixed use and maybe make so an urban residential we have um listed that we would allow certain office and service uses by special use permit things like financial institutions personal service professional office we would you know consider or is that a special exception is what we're gonna call it um in the urban neighborhood district so some non-residential uses well but what staff suggested is it calling it urban neighborhood not sure your question flexible neighborhood students that particular word small versus general we've talked about this so much i feel i don't yeah recall i mean flexible flexible it's a very it's a very technical word and i like the again i like the point they make in the description flexible describes a regulatory concept which is valid rather than what may occur on the property general residential that reflects a broader range of residential housing levels but that was a good critique i don't know if that complicates would you all communicate with people about what they can and cannot do on their property or not but i mean i don't have any objection to if you all want to call it general neighborhood to match the neighborhood name with you know the other districts yeah i mean for me i i really honestly think that it's more about consistency of nomenclature so when you've got suburban neighborhood urban neighborhood and then neighborhood commercial i just want to make sure that we're using the same consistency so on their side they're definitely it's residential residential residential residential and then neighborhood commercial stands on its own because of the fact that that is descriptor so I feel like it's a little cleaner in that way where we do kind of switch back between suburban neighborhood and then the next zone is flexible residential urban so the neighborhood versus residential I think should be uniform across the board I don't really have a dog in the five as far as um which one is is a better descriptive but I think that should they should be consistent understanding each of the use the urban use nomenclature that is in the latest version of your descriptors the suburban neighborhood flexible neighborhood urban neighborhood they may have ADUs added to them they may have duplexes or attached town hall or attached attached to a family which I still don't understand that but that's not none of them are ever going to be mixed use but it would be very different with density but there's a separate district that is mixed use but but commissioner key's point focusing you you proposed focusing on the first three and I guess I would propose I you know I I'm fine with neighborhood I've I've come to accept and understand suburban and urban I would just like to change flexible general okay and that that's I'm just advocating that for the first three mixed use won't ever be a part of any of the three of those so you're saying the key good neighborhood potential flexible dependent yes that's what I'm proposing they they do have a point about neighborhood carrot to I think the next two are pretty together in this way as well a little bit of especially these medium and high density aspects that we're talking about it's in it's very relevant for one thing um but the the first thing I'm thinking about is They they do have a point about neighborhood character. I think the next two are pretty together in this way as well. Um especially these medium and high density aspects that we're talking about. It's in it's very irrelevant for one thing. Um but the the first thing I'm thinking about is we're going over the top segments in addition to the names. So for the attached community, this is intended to provide the high density. So once again before people aren't necessarily needing these in sequence.