The Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee met on May 20, 2026, to consider two legislative items and receive presentations on traffic calming and urban forestry. The meeting included public comment on a non-agenda zoning issue, public hearings on an ordinance promoting native landscaping and a resolution on affordable housing feasibility, and discussions on transportation safety and city beautification efforts.
Good afternoon, Madam Clerk. We'll call this meeting to order. And you proceed with the chamber emergency uh announcement. Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building. Please use exits to the left or front or right front of the council chamber or the east or west stairwell outside of the rear doors of the chamber. Do not use escalate elevators or escalators. At the exit of the building, security would direct everyone down 9th Street to the assembly area located inside the former public safety building parking lot. Able persons should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building. Persons wishing to speak during the public comment period and or public hearings are generally allowed three minutes to speak. Persons appearing before the committee are now allowed to campaign for public office, promote prize, promote private business ventures, use language or personal nature which is also or demeans any person, including comments directed at public officials or staff members than not related to their official duties or just a question staff members directly. All questions to be directed to the committee chair. Fair to hear today guidelines, may result in speakers forfeiting any meeting time and further discipline action as necessary, which include which could include borrowing from attendance and future meetings of the committee for a period of six months. This concludes the announcement. Thank you. Public comment. Is there anyone here that would like to provide comment to the committee? But item is not on today's agenda. Please approach the podium and stage and a for the record. Good afternoon. My name is Thomas Courtney, and I am a nearby resident and registered agent of Floyd Grove Shepherd LLC. I'm here to provide a brief update regarding the VMFA Grove Avenue Storage Facility. The timeline is straightforward. In 2024, the project moved through plan of development approval without a final written zoning determination clearly resolving the facility's use classification. In March of 2025, during the BZA process, the project was defended on the premise that it would operate as an institutional accessory use connected to the VMFA and Commonwealth Control. In 2026, the facility has now reached the Certificate of Occupancy stage, but recent FOIA responses from the Department of General Services and the City of Richmond and related agencies still do not appear to show a completed public record confirming that institutional control condition before occupancy. That matters because the zoning premise has always been whether this is a lawful institutional accessory use controlled by the VMFA or the Commonwealth, rather than a private warehouse on a separate residential partial. This is not something that I created after the fact. In October 2022, Mr. Davidson stated that a use of a separate lot for the museum, if owned by the foundation, was not permitted as a principal use. The later pathway depended on commonwealth lease or control, yet no final appealable written zoning determination has been issued resolving that question. If the institutional control premise cannot be confirmed before occupancy, then the city may need to identify a corrective land use path rather than treating the issue as resolved by construction alone. One possible path would be requiring the private applicant to seek a special use permit approval so the use, operational control, neighborhood impacts, and conditions of occupancy can be reviewed publicly instead of being inferred from an incomplete or contingent records. The concern is now more concrete because private council has recently asserted private trespass restrictions against me. I raised that carefully, not to litigate a private property dispute here, but because it highlights the public facing issue. If the facility is treated as institutional or commonwealth controlled for zoning purposes, 30 seconds while private ownership and private restrictions are asserted, then the city should clearly explain the factual basis for zoning compliance before occupancy is finalized. I have requested a zoning confirmation letter to clarify this issue. That request remains unresolved. This is not about one neighbor or one project, it's about whether residents can obtain a clear appealable zoning determination when approval depends on contingent facts such as institutional control and operational use. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have anyone else, madam? I would like to address 11105. Is that basic for public comment for items not on the agenda? You could come back for the public hearing for that item. Do we have anyone signed up online? No, ma'am, we do not. Okay. So public comment. Public comment period is now closed. Thank you.