Good evening. Welcome to the July 2, 2024 meeting of the Ashton Town Council. In the way of, we generally start with a moment of silence and we were aware of our previous meeting but it went to wait just to make note of the recent passing of Miss Nannister, Florian Hall. She was a daughter of a beloved principal of Henry Clay, Henry Clay Elementary, Melvin Hall, and attended Shalow Baptist Church here in Ashland until her health declined. She was a Patrick Henry graduate and went to Howard University and Howard University Law School And in addition to law she loved music played the harp gifted as a writer Her obituary goes on and just says it's 60 she was diagnosed with a disease that ultimately rendered her wheelchair bound and wheelchair bound and amid all that she endured, she made space for her personal pursuits, interest and enjoyment. So I wanted to just make note of this person who served the community and was known to many people, make note of her passing, but also just wanted to read that and invite you to reflect. Join the moment of silence to reflect on enduring and making space, all right? So please join the moment of silence to reflect on enduring and making space. All right, so please join the moment of silence. Thank you. Mr. Vice-Mayor, would you lead us in the pledge? As you're able, please stand and join me in the pledge. Thank you. We'll review our agenda here and see that we have our consent agenda next. Three items on the consent agenda. Minutes from our June 17th, 2024 meeting. We have invoices in our parks and recreation, month proclamation. Then we have citizen input time, opportunity for an individual come forward and speak to council on any matter other than on our public hearings because we do have opportunity to speak before council on the public hearings. We have three of those tonight. Condition to use permit 24 0508. Randolph-Making College modular housing ordinance 24-14 permanent water and sewer easement agreement and the last ordinance 2024-11 lot frontage requirements. After that we have reports from council members mayors report public works report planning and community development report in town managers report. Is there consensus for the agenda as presented? Yes. All right. We want to, even though a consent agenda with the intent of a consent agenda is that all these things can be put together and move the meeting quicker. But we only have three items and we have reasons that we'd like to just take those one at a time. And so wanted to ask Ms. Barnhart, if she would, as our liaison to the Parks and Recreation Committee, if you would go ahead and read our proclamation on the behalf. I'll be happy to. Whereas Parks and Recreation is a nitty-gritty part of the community throughout this county, including Ashland and Virginia, apart from country, including Ashland and Virginia, and whereas Parks and Recreation encourages physical wellness by providing space for sports, trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles. And whereas parks and recreation enhances mental well-being through a connection with nature and a reduction in stress. And as whereas parks and recreation promotes community engagement, provides public gathering spaces and fosters a sense of belonging. And whereas parks and recreation boost boost a community's economic prosperity through increased property value, tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses and crime reduction, and whereas parks and recreation ensures the ecological beauty of our community as is fundamentally to environmental well-being through the conservation of natural resources and the protection of, and I have this highlighted, crit to call, or critters, critical habitats, and whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient to the face of adversity. And whereas the US House of Representatives has designated July as parks and recreation month, and whereas the US House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month and whereas the town of Ashton recognizes the benefits derived from Parks and Recreation Resources. Now therefore be it proclaimed by the Ashton Town Council that July is recognized as Park and Recreation Month in Ashton, Virginia. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. And then we have two invoices. Both of them are for venture electric company. Installation of flashing yellow arrows at Hill Carter Parkway Junction Drive. Installation of rectangular rapid flashing beacon at Ashcake Road in Maple Street. Both are for a little bit over $27,000 each. for each of the three and the three of the and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three and the three of the three the bill. Hi, Seconded. Vice Mayor Hodges. Hi, Dr. McGraw. Hi, this barnheart. Hi, the soap hole. Hi, Mayor Chvette. Hi. All right, and that leaves us the minutes and we wanted to hold off on introducing the minutes in the group that there would be opportunity for extra discussion about that. My plan to abstain was not able to be at the last meeting. All right. Thank you for Mr. Mayor for. Yes sir. And so there is there a motion to approve the minutes. I move. Excuse me. I just said I don't have his die. I'm going to stay quiet for now. No problem. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the minutes. I second. All right. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Epstein. Mayor Trevett. Aye. All right. Thank you all. All right. And there brings us to Susan is an input time so invite anyone who wants to come forward Speak to counsel on a matter other than the three public hearing matters to come up at this time identify yourself by Name and address if you would Yes, sir You take your time I said take your time your problem. I want to one person but I pay my tax to one person. All right. Let me just just for a second. We know who you are but for the record, would you state your name and address? Oh, Moody. Got to do it for the record, sir. Oh, trade no seems me. All right. All right, can I go now? Yes, sir, thank you. All right, I don't understand that from Hennessey Road down to John White Night Pavan, I'm going out of here today to trunk me one side of it. I don't see why it won't. It went down to Jamestown and paint that. They did John. John, I'm coming down to Blacktop Street. That's one problem. The second name problem is when you go down to a street, go go to stage 3, go to path retreat. The shoulder bone, but two inches deep. And these shoulders down there. I've been out in six to eight years and after this is out control. Somebody don't know what they're doing. You go to Hennon Clay Road, you got a different Henrik Lane Road, but that deep. And I've been there, like I said, six to eight years. I never see an asshole in bed as it is now. In the tree, what I mean. You go down a patch of tree, a patch of tree, a phone. A phone, you get tell, jam tree, it's like, make a turn, go to that phone, you've got a big dip. It's bad. You know, somebody is not doing their job right. You know, I've been working with town for 28 years. And we had all this stuff, the road, but it's terrible. It was a bad thing. I came to see how come these trees, that's a street tree, maybe a tape. But what down there, James, down there, did that. I'm a kid of a jam tree. I don't get nothing but jam tree. I don't have jam tree. But street, make sure. to do something about that. I told him, even about it, I told Todd, and then he did it. My truck would have one sided when he come down Steve's because it's bad. But I remember time, 20 some years back, when Steve Stank, Steve Vos and Magdaib, they tricks were good. You remember Magdaib, but you got somebody doing a job. You got a lot of guys running down the job, around the street, they ain't doing a job. I'm telling you. And I'm like, I said, I've been playing for 20 years. It's terrible. But I come in and pay my tax. I'm 10 years and I'm not gonna say I've been telling 20 years. It's terrible. But I come in and pay my tax. I mean, tax. And I think I should, I'm only one person. But I want to pay my tax, I'm one person. You know, I said again, Tricky and Alan is terrible. They're terrible and they're doing it. Because I was a a shopping day, and they would tell me, deep, and I'd ask for five years since I left. And you know, we had to ask for a down in the tree. But no, I do the five years. So you don't maintain the tree, it's going bad. I can find a mate, ran a curve from me. It's got a different but that deep nobody pays attention to it but me because I try to roll. You got in front of my eyes got a crack in the roll going crazy about the roll nobody pays attention to that but me everybody arrived down the John tree. It don't feel attention, but the road. That's because he ain't got nothing about it. To put pressure on him. Well, I wanted to tell you, I had to do a wingsfield. I don't know him. We had to work with Steve Trainor to do that. But do you guys that are now all do right down the John Brown Street. And I may say it too much, but they don't kill. Because I do live in after they tax. I say, Chief, he might lock me up, but that's all I can do. I can get up there. But I just, I just understand, I just don't understand, you know, Tyler and I think Tyler and Tyler, they built, they built some James for him, Henry Clay Road down to John. And like I said, John Brown truck, I don't do no cousin, but I get mad. The truck on one side is terrible. They're the hole in front of my hole, the hole in front of the pad. Somebody fell out of it. But I'm sad again. After, it's never been that bad with type work. Because he had nobody, he ain't got nobody, push them guys work. And I do it out of writing. And you know, when Steve and Jerry left with that, that work was one day. Because Steve was a bit pressure on you. You're going to fix them always in a row. And I thank you for letting me speak. Yes, sir. I'm going back home now. Thank you Mr. Wooden. Thank you. The comments are well noted. Anyone else speak at citizen time? I'll get it later. All right. Seeing no one else will dispense with that and move to our first public hearing. Conditioning permit 24-0508. Renov making college modular housing. Welcome Miss Amos. Good evening. The first public hearing we have this morning, or this morning, this evening is Randolph-Macon College Modular Housing, which is conditional use permit 24-0508. This is a request received from the applicant and property owner Randolph-Macon College. They're requesting to construct three one-story modular residence halls. The property is located at 422 Henry Street. It's part of the larger Randolph-Macon property which will get into the location a little further. The property is owned, H.E. higher education and the future land use for this area is Randolph-Macon College. So this request is to allow up to 118 temporary modular spaces for the Randolph-Macon as we know as a residential college. They attempt to keep as many students on campus as possible. I think that works well for them being a small college financially, but also just as building a community within the small enrollment that they have. In the fall of 2020, due to COVID, there was a sharp enrollment drop at the college. Those kids are now filtering out, and so they will be seniors this coming year. And so it's probably one of the smallest classes as far as enrollment that we've seen in decades. And I'm sure the college who is here can speak to that. But then we hit fall of 2024. And for a variety of reasons, again, that the college can speak to further dealing with FAFSA and the new way that students are applying for colleges and accepting college enrollments. Their enrollment is currently planned to exceed expectations. Before, they had a lot of rooms that could be used as double rooms, but now those are being used as singles for a variety of reasons. Some is due to disabilities and then also due to have being able to only have one sex on a floor depending on if they only have one bathroom area they can only have either a female floor or a male floor. So because of that many of their double rooms are now being used as singles. So they've requested a conditional use permit. As you know this conditional use permit grants a property owner the right to use their property in a more intensive manner that would be allowed by a by-right use under our standard zoning ordinance. It's a little different than a rezoning because with rezoning we get voluntary offers or proffers but with the conditional use permit you as the town council after getting recommendations from the planning commission can designate conditions to mitigate some of those issues. A lot of times we look at noise, lighting, transportation, and other things that may come up from a more intense use. So under the higher education, HE zoning district dormitories need a conditional use permit. And so while these units are temporary, they will be used as dormitories. And so here we are this evening to review this request. So here's that location. That northern road boundary there is Smith Street, and then the eastern boundary is Henry. And so you can see it's right adjacent to the baseball field and north of the new dormitory just north of the football field. Here's a street view of the areas that exist today. So it's an empty field used as a practice field. And while we're on this picture, you can see that there are some existing trees along Henry Street and you don't see them here in the picture, let's go back to the aerial per house, which you can see there is a line of trees on the northern end of this property that can buffer it from the adjacent property owners to the north. So the future land use map calls for this land use to be Randolph-Macon College. As part of the comprehensive plan, we adopted the Randolph-Macon master plan. And so this is part of their 2009 master plan. The college is in the middle of updating their master plan and the town staff is sitting on that committee and helping them with that review and update we look forward to having the ability to have some community input on that process. But this will be updated. But as of now, we're still using that 2009 plan. And you can see there in the circle that there were was a plan for additional housing units we believe dormitory units there on this blinco field This is the Randolph-Making College map just to show you what's there today And so you can see now number 59 is just a is a sports field and so this is what's on campus as of today. So again that comprehensive plan we do talk about the Randolph-Making College with many times through several chapters of the comprehensive plan. When we did our update last year we did not do a deep dive into the Randolph-Making College sections hoping that we could go back and update those once the college master plan has been updated. But pulling from the comprehensive plan a few points, it does recommend the development by the college be kept within the existing campus footprint. And this would do that. Recommends providing on-campus housing in order to limit off-campus housing. Again, we will be meeting that. Need there. And recommends protecting tree canopy. housing in order to limit off campus housing. Again, we will be meeting that need there and recommends protecting tree canopy. One of the reasons that we want them to kind of keep insular into their existing college campus is that it doesn't spill over into our existing neighborhoods. Something that has been an issue in the past has been transportation or traffic and parking issues and so some of that has been relieved with the new parking permit requirements in the neighborhood. What we do also regularly work with the college to update their transportation plan, the parking plan. So the property is zoned, H.E. you can see the purple pink color is H.E. It's surrounded mostly by R3 residential. Most of those are single family residential homes. So the H.E. District talks about protecting the area of town that the college now encompasses and then also allowing for orderly expansion of the college by not allowing the encroachment of uses that would be detrimental to the college or town. So, in analyzing the impact on adjacent properties, the majority of the immediately adjacent properties are owned by Randolph-Macon College. There were three adjacent non-Randolph-Macon owned parcels at the Planning Commission meeting. We had several homeowners attend that meeting and one did speak at the public hearing. There are mature trees as we discussed on the northern side and some wrapping around Henry Street. The intent is for those to be preserved around the dorm. Lighting will be reviewed further through our review of the building permit, they will have to meet all dark sky compliant requirements for lighting. So the architecture, it's not really at all compatible with the historic buildings on campus or what we would usually approve. However, these modular residence halls are intended to be temporary structures and will not be permanent detraction from the architectural character of the campus. So here's just a layout that we received from Randolph-Macon College, the next several we received from them, showing what the interior of these units will be. They are intended to be double occupancy. In the middle there is a common area, small kitchen and restroom facilities. So this, it came up in the planning commission, is this the color that will be used? This is just an example kind of match for Virginia State University's colors. During COVID as you can imagine, many colleges had to go to this type of modular units. So that's the exterior, Here's the interior hallway, the interior of one of the units, the bathroom areas, the showers. So here is, we pulled and you'll see the new condition to condition that it be built in accordance with the layout so that it will be your new exhibit A. And so it's just showing the location of these three modular units. So additional consideration is the vehicular impact. The parking plan will be under review. You'll see we have a condition that prior to CO, the council will have to adopt a new parking plan. Something that we started to review the parking plan back in 2019 when their enrollment had gotten to almost the top of the parking plan, but then with the 2020 enrollment decline, they were continuing to meet the parking needs. Now that we've seen this increase, there is the potential to have a need for an additional 100 parking spaces prior to getting the CO for this project. We do receive regular complaints regarding parking around campus within the neighborhoods but I think some of that has been alleviated with the new permit program. Pedestrian facilities we believe the foot traffic will be mostly limited to the campus and Henry Street crossings no new crossings will need or sidewalks will be needed with this project as sidewalks are already in place it is a temporary use plan for a new residential facilities but they're right now they have planned for the west side, the conditional use permit that they received a couple years ago for 64 units, but we look forward to working with them to fill the other 60 or plus units that will be needed to remove these modular units in the future. So I have in front of you the few amendments after I met with several of you all to talk about this application and through that discussion we are proposing a few amendments and so those are in red. The one in the first condition which talks about this permit being reviewed annually, originally it said through a public hearing process, through a comment we received, we've changed that by review of the town council. So without a public hearing process, I'm sure we could still take some public input, but that it could be reviewed annually up to three times. But then I also added there in the parentheses, which will, the parentheses will come out, that's just to show you what's been added. That the council may refer the conditional use permit back to the planning commission for review and recommendation through a public hearing process. So if you find that there are issues the town council can refer that back to the planning commission. And then I made a, so number two, the modular residence halls will be constructed and conformity with the examples depicted in exhibit A. It looks like I added that twice. And then existing landscaping shall be preserved as number three. If removed or damaged, will be replaced with equal or greater canopy coverage. A ground cover such as grass is excluded from this requirement. An additional buffer landscaping shall be installed in areas directly adjacent to non-Randolph-Macon residential properties. And so in speaking with the applicant about that, they have had issues in the past with putting in new landscaping and the fire marshal. And so we added in there with fire marshal approval for the additional landscaping And then the next one these are comments that we received from department of public utilities all water and sewer extension and connections will be completed in accordance with their standards When the housing is removed those public services will be abandoned in accordance with the DPU standards If the temporary housing is still in place by June 1, 20, 20, 6, permanent storm water improvements must be completed by September 30, 20, 20, 6. And so right now the applicants will be paying into our storm water fee, $1 per square foot. We believe that's approximately $18,000. It'll go into our storm water fund to do local storm water improvements. If within two years a solution has not been found to relocate these modular home or modular units, then they will need to improve storm water on site. All on-street parking regulations shall be followed by dorm residents. The parking plan shall be reviewed and updated as needed prior to the occupancy permit approval. And the parking ratio just so you all know is one spot for 80% of enrolled students and one for one for each faculty and staff member employed. And then I'm going to delete eight, I apologize, because we have that up into. And then the owner shall comply with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations and that the applicant shall participate as necessary in recording the conditional use permit. Yes, sir. Just to point a clarification, the two exhibits, I took one, the number two to be the elevations, if you will. The pictures of the units and I took exhibit B to be the plan. You want an elevation and want a plan. I'm going to change exhibit B then. There we go. Because I think there you go. I think that would work and then you'd have the Virginia State University elevations and then the conceptual plan to an aerial view of putting them on the ground. Perfect. Thank you. What's it? So the Planning Commission held a public hearing and discussed the issues that were received by the neighbors, they also reviewed parking and storm water concerns and then they recommended approval of the request with the nine conditions that were shown in the staff report. So staff recommends approval of the condition use permit 24-0508 with the 10 conditions that have been presented in this presentation Which amended conditions one and three and added a new condition number eight Based off of what the planning commissioner recommended All right any questions for staff at this point. I mean, I thought you said number eight was taken out questions for staff at this point. I thought you said number eight was taken out. Vice Mayor Hodges made an excellent point that we will keep that and we changed it to exhibit B. So that will be the layout exhibit A will be the architectural designs from Virginia State. Good question. Very good. All right. If you know the questions, we're good. All right. If you know other questions, we're good. The applicant opportunity to come up and speak to this. Mr. Mayor and council members, my name is Grant Azdel. I serve currently as the vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Randolph-Thinking College, speaking on behalf of the college this evening. Thank you for this hearing and for the opportunity. The Planning Commission had some good questions for us, which provided some context for why we are here at this point. You heard staff mentioned that we had a down class after COVID, following COVID. That class has been moving through the institution headed towards graduation, which they will do next year. We also have a banner year this year, which is a welcome piece if you understand or you've seen in the news anything that's affected, especially private nonprofit colleges across the US, over 118 private nonprofit colleges or universities have closed or merged since the year 2016. Virginia, except for just a handful of the privates, are experiencing downward trends in enrollment as we speak. So Randolph-Macon is fortunate that through some of our efforts to make the campus more update modern, we've managed to attract a fair number of students to the campus. In addition to that, we are also seeing we think an uptick this year because of problems with the FASFA, Federal FASFA form, which was slowed to roll out and then had errors in it. We, our enrollment team actually packaged some students using just their tax returns instead of waiting on the FAFSA, which gave them an earlier view of our institution with regards to what it would cost to come here, and then also gave them an opportunity to come to campus more frequently. Our visits were remarkably over the last two years, last year year with visitors to the campus. And also the number of times they came to the campus. So they kept coming back to Ashland and seeing the campus over and over again, which is we think leads in part to where we are today with regards to the need for this housing. The secondary need for the housing is also referred to by staff, which is our goal to be a residential college and to have as many students reside on campus as possible rather than out in the neighborhoods. Any questions? Well I should have asked Nora but I can ask you. We'll have opportunity. Okay can we do, do I ask now? No, I'm just saying. We'll have further conversation. You could ask Nora. Oh, okay. Oh, but if you'd like to ask, Mr. Asnor. I will ask Nora. Okay. All right. Go ahead, sir. And I would ask Nora, but I don't think she has the answer. And I don't know if you're comfortable providing an answer, a condition seven that proposed an essence asked you to add up your projected enrollment which would have to be an estimate at this point. And in the staff report I think 1600 was used as a round number. Is there a round number of employees? Because the parking plan will be 80% of the students and a hundred percent of the employees and faculty. Just round numbers. We do have those numbers for staff. I would hold, I'm holding some of that until we have a conversation with staff about it because we wanna make sure we are completely accurate and our faculty staff numbers do change during the summer. So we wanna have an accurate count for that. I respect that. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations on your success. Thank you. Yes indeed. It's Ashland's success. The conditional use permit, the review process, and this is something that can be worked out over time. But if it's an annual review, then I'm thinking we'll need to know when the clock ticks and how long do you need to wait, either how quickly does the college have to act? How quickly do we have to act? And then if town council refers it to the planning commission, I'm worried just wondering about whether something might be backlogged to weigh your six months into a year and we're waiting to approve that year. If that makes sense to anyone else. Makes sense, I'm not sure. Yeah, more. Yeah, it makes absolute sense. If it's an annual review, we would probably look to next June to start putting the review together and bringing that to you either in late June or July. I think this is only going to come into play if there's an issue or concern with these units. And at that point, there is the potential for moving the conditional use permit. Okay and so the clock starts ticking once we give our approval or once there. That's the way it's now. Yes. Okay all right because I'm just wondering about the time lag between an approval and then these structures being in use to where it's hard to monitor what issues there might be until something is in use. So I guess I'm just saying we need to make sure that we have enough, not a very professional term, but wiggle room, to make sure that we're not being unreasonable in the same thing that the college doesn't. We don't misunderstand each other because if deadlines are hard in life, hard facts and then life is sometimes a little bit trickier. Just wanted to bring that up so we can all be thinking about how do we make this work together. I believe students should be out by the end of May and so I think at that point we would have the whole school year in place and could come immediately thereafter to review how that went. All right, thank you. Any other questions? I have a question. Okay, I just want to ask again and I guess for the purpose of people watching who may want to know the same thing. I was told that the new housing coming in would be for soft moors and juniors. Is that correct? That's my understanding, but I think that's correct. We are not putting any freshmen students in this housing. Thank you. I'm sorry. And the last question. I had a question about parking, but I guess I'll wait until the parking plan review, and then I'll ask my questions, right? Tonight might be a good time to go ahead and ask those questions so that we can be prepared and working with the college over the next few weeks and getting that parking plan done. So if you have questions and you could share those with us. I don't know. I think I want to look at the review first and get my questions from that. Okay. Thank you. And I might speak to Vice Mayor Hodges question while I'm up here. The current plan that we're working off of that we worked on in 2019 and 2020. I believe had 363 employees. Thank you. Thank you. At this point, is there a general consensus between the college and the town, as far as expectations for what an acceptable parking plan should cover and should look like? I see a lot of the heads. We've had some extensive conversations about this and we want to look at the entire layout of the college and be deliberate about it. We're also trying to maintain as much green space as we possibly can on our campus. We're doing our part, keep the town of Ashland beautiful. So, our tree city. All right. Well, I did have a question about the parking because I understand it's gonna be a problem. And I understand you have to ask, or you shouldn't say ask. I understand you have to allow students to bring their cars on campus because that's such a drawing cart. I get that. So I do have a concern about parking because I know that we have had problems in that area with street parking and whatever. So I appreciate the conversations that you are having and appreciate the fact that we can, we're all on board when it comes to parking. We know that we're seeing an increase of people riding on the train and now we have wonderful new students coming to town. So it is a concern. So I'm glad for the conversation, but it is a concern. We are equally concerned with that I have a chief Aaron hold on speed dial He has me on his all right anything else All right at this point we'll go ahead and Open the public hearing Ask anyone who'd like to come forward to speak to this a condition. You should admit to come forward at this time to speak to this condition. You should be able to come forward this time. This one might taste better. And though we know who you are, yes, your name and address please. My name is Sharon McKenna. I live at 301 Virginia Street. I love the college. I did not go to the college. None of my children went to the college, but it is such an integral part of the town. I wish more people from the town would participate in some of the events. The sporting events, the theater, it's all wonderful. And I think anything we can do to help the college so they can continue to allow us to be part of it and enjoy the students would be great. I also said, I also own a property that does adjacent to the college. And I know and I know own a property that is adjacent to the college and Not I know and I know has complained about that in fact my current tenants are complaining because they want the boys to come back to let Why can't I always read read the students because I love them so much? Thank you. All right. Thank you I'm Steve Chidzy. I also live in 301 Virginia Street with the young lady back there actually. So I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. I do feel like this is a triumph for both the college and the town which is expansion with what's been happening around the rest of the nation with these private small colleges having to struggle so much and they're expanding and doing so wonderful. It is really just a pause to the college for what they've been able to accomplish. I think we should do our best to help them, to appreciate this and it can't if it's down brings more income in, the students bring that also. And they're an integral part of the community. The college has done so many things. I think I've seen some of you on the stage at events at the college actually, acting and dancing, and I use that term somewhat loosely actually. But in a wonderful asset, strawberry fair, and many other activities that they host, and I think we should meet them in their endeavors here also. And we do own some property very close on B Street. And since the permit process went there, we've not had any parking on that street at all. I'm there at least weekly. And we've had no complaints from our tenants there about parking on the street from students. So I think that program has been very successful in that Berkeley town area, at least on B Street. I know. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Then I just want to say, I think know. Thank you very much. Thank you. I just want to say I think the cooperation from the college with the town has been just wonderful. 41 years. I think it's great. All right. At this point, well, I ask again, anyone to speak to this in the public hearing? Seeing no one will close the public hearing and bring it back to the council. Miss Ames, did you have more that you wanted to say before me? Okay. No meeting between Randolph-Macon and the town would be complete without quoting President Lingeron that we are inexplicably connected and would both benefit in each other's successes. I don't intend to make a motion. I think that should probably come from our commission representative. But I did want to speak to the condition that the mayor spoke to. Number one, the language may refer the cup back to the Planning Commission for Review and Recommendations for Public Hearing. My feeling is that we could strike that language and just have a review by town council. My feeling is that if the applicant is meeting the conditions of approval, making a good faith, the real issue is the good faith effort to move forward with a permanent solution. Then there, if they're in compliance with the conditional use permit, we should treat it as a review, not a public hearing. If they're not, if for some reason, and it could happen, that the application, the applicants are not moving forward, and it doesn't look like that in the three years, basically, that the conditional use permit is granted. Then I think that would be a time in which to question whether they're meeting the conditions of the cup. And that's a process that I think can be provided without making a condition. But that's something. I think the Planning Commission talked about being involved, but I share the mayor's concern about the timing of Randolph-Macon being able to know for sure where they are in the process by June of next year if we invoke the Commission review and cut process. So I intend to support the conditions one through ten. I would as presented by Miss Amos, I would support the language by review of town council which would delete the public hearing process I believe. And I also would support deleting the council may refer the cut back to the planning commission. I think in our review if there is an issue then we can go through enforcement of conditions to address that. And again that's my thoughts for the whoever makes the motion. Other thoughts on that from council members? I'm assuming that there's a general consensus of agreement. Thank you. No one speaking in the opposite direction. That's great. Okay. Anything else before we have a motion? I was just going to say, I really appreciate the work of the staff and the planning commission the applicant I know it you know having Watched everything unfold. They've been working very hard together and try and make this happen and It just speaks so highly of the efforts of Randolph-Macon that we have this I'm gonna call it a lovely problem and we're you know happy that we can Discuss this with you and make this happen so So I obviously fully would like to support this. And if I may, I'll be happy to make a motion. But I do want to ask, are we amending, or can I just go with the first? Are we amending something that I need to make the motion or may I go with the very first one of just as presented? We have amended it. We have amended, I want to just make sure that. Number one. All right so I will go with the second one. I move to approve CUP 24-0508 RMC modular housing as amended. I second. Okay. Part me. Mr the question. Does that give you what you need in the motion? Will the conditions and? Yes. Okay. It does. I'm good. Is the clerk good with it? Oh yes, sir. I have exactly what I need. We have a motion in a second. Miss Opal? Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Mr. Barnhart. Hi. Mayor Trevett. Hi. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. I'm here. Thank you all. All right. Be high, brevity. All right. All right. We will move to the next public hearing. Ordnance 2024-14 permanent water and sewer easement agreement. Mr. Gin. Thank you all. Good evening members of town council. Let's see if we can bring this little presentation up. Not a long one. All right. All right. I bring forward to you tonight, back to the ordinance, 2024-14, which is a permanent water and seweries and agreement. And basically, it's a request of the, Council approval of ordinance 2024-14 for the town manager to sign a permanent water and sewer easement agreement with Hannaver County. As y'all know, Hannaver County is building a new school, ash on elementary school, and they're funding the construction of that project. And the easement is for Hannaver County to construct, operate, and maintain water and sand to sewer utilities for connection to the school. And the easement needed is only 6762 feet or .016 acres. Here's an aerial kind of shows where we're talking about. The area in white is just that little sliver. It kind of looks funny just being a little sliver in middle of nowhere. I'll explain a little bit more with the next slide. But obviously that's a town shop off West Vaughan Road to the northwest. And the reason this area here is not, this is actually already right, oh, okay, let's go, we jump ahead. So this is actually right away already. So we didn't need it easement through the area area And this triangle here is actually part owned by the town and as y'all probably know this piece and this piece and all these pieces Here, which now become Berkeley town park with the trail system and the Adventures and stuff that Emmy and Herkru are working on so So only thing needed is that little white shaded area and this is kind of a a plat of that area and the reason, so all this hatched in blue is actually existing right away. The area needed is in yellow and that's that 20 foot wide piece that we need and the reason the rest of this is not needed here is that's already, sorry, that's an existing sewer and water easement that's already in place. So technically the sewer and water connection line goes through there But they didn't need an easement because an easement already exists in that area so Obviously the request is for a permanent water and sewer easement agreement with Hannabury County on that 0.16 acres and it's G Penn 787 086 5031 which is owned by the town of Ashland which I mentioned. Hanna McKowney constructed the Water and sewer line in that to the new school and they'll also operate and maintain these lines in the easement. So with that staff recommends approval of ordinance 2024-14 from the town manager to sign a permanent Water and sewer easement agreement with Hannah Rick County is presented and it's what ever it was advertised in a local paper June 19th and June 26th and with that I'd be happy to answer any questions. All right questions for staff on this Seeing that thank you. We have officially open the public hearing. I don't think we have anyone from Hanover County that wants to speak to this. We'll open the public hearing and invite anyone to come forward wherever they are. Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council again for any questions, comments or a motion? Both of those comments, Mr. Mayor, I move for town council approval of ordinance 2024-14 for the town manager to sign a permanent water and sewer deed of easement with the Hanover County as presented. Second. Hi The second. The second. So Paul. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Ms. Barnhart. Aye. Mayor Trevet. Aye. Aye. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you all. All right. Bring us to our third and last public hearing here ordinance 2024-11 lot frontage requirements Welcome back miss this one will probably take a little bit So our last public hearing that we have this evening is ORD2024-11, a lot frontage requirements. And so this was actually a request that staff sent through town council who requested that the planning commission review, the proposed amendments to chapter 17, our subdivision section of our code as well as chapter 21. In regards to lot frontage requirements for residential incentive districts through cottage court homes, as well as for our industrial access roads. So back in 2016 we updated our comprehensive plan and did a pretty significant update to our housing section and created a checklist of items that we desire to see within our communities that really made Ashland. Ashland and so through that and after the approval of the comprehensive plan we adopted a new zoning district called RIN and that's the residential and incentive district that got approved in 2017. As part of that we integrated the Cottage Court concept where Holmes would affront on a common green area as opposed to individual street frontage. The intention was that they would be served to by the rear in the rear of those units. So we updated the zoning ordinance back in 2017 to create the new definition that says instead of individual street frontage, but we did not update the subdivision ordinance in section 17-3. You'll see there at the end that all lots, any structure shall be erected on land that shall front on a dedicated street. And so that clearly is in conflict with the zoning ordinance that was changed in 2017. And so we received an application for our first cottage court development earlier this year. This is the Cali Commons layout that you all saw through a rezoning application that got deferred until we could handle this issue that came about reviewing this application. And so part of the cottage court development is that it has to be a certain size and it has to have 180 feet of road frontage so that entire development and they are getting that 180 feet of road frontage off of Cali Street. They are kind of splitting them in the middle to west side of the development but you can see those lots that are accessed with an alleyway to the southern portion are fronting on the green space and not on a public street. And so we worked with the applicant and I think they could get creative and possibly work those out where they face on Vaughn, but then you'd have shared private or shared access on this public green. It no longer be maintained by the HOA, it would be on private property. And so the intent, I think, originally for this was to not have these units face on public streets. And we would like to continue to have the ability to be creative in this type of design of residential district It doesn't always have to be the same cookie cutter that we've seen in the past for single family homes That being said there's a lot of concerns about allowing for private streets or not having a street access at all And that comes with maintenance is the main situation there as well as safety. So it just so happened at the same time we received this application from M&M for rezoning. They didn't really have a concept plan, but this is one we talked to them about for their flex space and this is an industrial park. And so you can see there that up the middle between the four units they had a kind of central road and then in order to get road frontage to the additional lots there on the east they would probably have to continue the road around. And that would be a public road that's really serving a private purpose for this industrial park. And so some similar situation came up with vitamin shops. So we have this public road that's publicly maintained that really serves vitamin shop portion of R&DC. I came up again with Johnson Road and so they have public access off of Johnson Road but then they also have two other access roads that are dedicated to the town. as to the town has to maintain these, where perhaps it could have been considered that they become industrial access roads that are maintained by the private owners there. And so there's two different situations that kind of came about at the same time. And so I have included here the amendments that we're requesting to change that would allow for an exception. And so we were eager to go to the Planning Commission to have conversation on the pros and cons, because I think there are. We need to be really thoughtful because this could be opening up a can of worms in the future. I think we have limited it pretty well and we've put some conditions and requirements on being able to get that exception, but I think we do need to be thoughtful in the review of this request. And so again, that 17-3 under the definitions of a subdivision, it mentions that structure shall be erected on land that fronts on a dedicated street. And we've really just put a comma there, unless otherwise dictated by code and then we're otherwise dictating here in section 17-37 location and so what's existing here is that line that's not underlined each lot shall but on an existing or proposed dedicated public street or on a street which has become public by right of use. And so everything else that's underlined is what we are proposing to add to the ordinance to allow for this exception. Everything in red is similar to what we do with the conditional use permit items that I am recommending changing due to conversations that I've had with council members. And so just to go through this, the town council may grant so you don't have to grant an exception in limited circumstances to the requirements for lots to a but on a public street per that code section if the following items have been met. And you'll see here that these are all answers not or so you can't just meet a couple of these you have to meet all of them. And so if the granting of the exception will not be detrimental to the intentions of the town's adopted comprehensive plan, come a public safety, health or welfare or injurious or detrimental to other properties and then we're adding or future property owners in the development. And to hear the property is zoned either M1, M2 or residential incentive. And so I think this will assist in making sure that it doesn't open up too many cans there in other residential areas or in other business districts. If it is residential incentive, the only exception to be granted is for the erection of cottage courts as defined within the zoning ordinance A number three the property is not adjacent to a proposed roadway as shown on the transportation plan or proposed roadway in an adjacent site development plan And access to the site must be approved through a recorded private improvement maintenance declaration in the form Approved by the town attorney and the town manager that ensures a mechanism private improvement maintenance declaration in the form approved by the town attorney and the town manager that ensures a mechanism for ongoing maintenance without the need for public services. And I'll stop right there and we'll get back to it because one of the concerns is that we allow these things in 10 or 20 years from now when they start to get potholes or they're degraded, they're going to come back and say town can you take over this for us? And so just like we have with our storm water management ponds, we wanna make sure that we have a very clear language and agreements with these HOAs or commercial associations for the industrial districts. Which number are you on now? I'm sorry. Three, I just stopped, I don't know if my... So I finished here after public services. Okay. And to continue, it must connect to an existing public road. The agreement shall provide that the private street will be maintained in substantially the same condition as when approved by the town. And then number five, just some considerations here. In granting this exception, the council may recommend such conditions that will, in its judgment, to secure substantially the objectives of the standards or requirements of this chapter. Recommended conditions include, but you can add other conditions. But here are some that are recommended. All requirements for fire apparatus access will be met, so that helps us with that safety and security issue. Construction of the access drive will meet engineering requirements with respect to matters of width and construction specifications, so we wouldn't want them to go out there and build a road that's built for 400 vehicles per day when they have 4,000 vehicles per day, as well as land clearing, erosion, sediment control, wetlands, and other regulatory matters is determined by the director of public works. Adequate easement shall be provided for all utilities as deemed necessary by the reviewing agencies. So for example, on DPU, we would have all easements that they would need. And a petition for any exception shall be submitted and writing to the zoning administrator and the, so that's just how it will happen. Also adequate signage to alert public and emergency response vehicles of access points. Shall be, can be conditioned there. Okay. Can you, I'm sorry, yes, ma'am. Okay, number four shall provide the private street will be maintained. Okay, access. The last sentence there in red starting with the agreement. The private street we maintain. Who's going to maintain it? It refers back to this maintenance declaration, which is whoever's signing that, but I can clear that language out for you. Okay. Good question. I think that's a good question. Yeah, good question. Make it very clear. Thank you. And Miss Amy's just before you go and this isn't necessarily picking small issues, but it could be interpreted oddly. The number five says, may recommend such conditions at will in its judgment versus that will. At will could be interpreted kind of whatever you like and throw whatever conditions you want. May I make a comment? I think it's probably no surprise who's the person who has concerns about private roads and I'd like to commend Miss Amos for Getting my comments basically earlier today and turning around something that I think substantially Gets to issues I've raised so If there's any to be taken I will take it as well If there's any heat to be taken, I will take it as well. Okay. Now I've made four go back up there. Hold on. Let me fix this. Okay. So the next, did you have a question about that slide? Go ahead. One of the questions, comment. Now I'd started a question. Hold on. I'll hold off until you're down here. Okay. And so the next amendment is section 22, section 21-251, location of uses and structures. And so this is within the zoning code. So the amendment to the zoning ordinance would be through Ashland Town Code section 17-37, Town Council make grant and exception for newly created lots for cottage courts zoned Our in and individual parks zoned in one and M2 Industrial parks. Yes, industrial marks Just this is the overall question don't mean to put you on the spot, but The town adopted the residential incentive zoning district. And so nothing in here really explains the name. Why is there? Or why did the town say have a residential incentive district? And what's the incentive? So I'm just just for public knowledge. It's a great question. Thank you. So the residential incentive district allows for additional density, but also creativity in master planning an area. And so you can have a mix of uses similar to the PUD, but within this district as opposed to what's in the plan unit development, it specifically calls out what checklist items you have to meet to get those incentives. So smaller lot sizes if you do xyz and apologize those aren't up here. All the things that are mentioned within our comprehensive plan about design, porches, those things. In the reason I asked the question first of all, in all honesty, I wanted to hear that because a lot of times when we hear of incentives, we're thinking, okay, we're providing an incentive to a developer, to home or whatever, to be able to provide in the long run less expensive housing. There's some incentive, I think, to try to save money on what would be unacceptable and hopefully a great quality of life, atmosphere or design. So I want to say that from the beginning because as we talk about private streets and access and maintenance agreements, I want to kind of consider different things as we talk about. Are we raised and cost enough to where someone would say, well, maybe that there's not so much financial incentive as design incentive. So we need to keep those things in the back of our mind as we weigh the different things as we discuss so sorry to be wanting to give speeches But just wanted to make that point. I take your point. Yeah, I have a question Okay, you mentioned less expensive houses and I remember the last time I asked a question It might have been about this development the price. How do we know what the price is, do we know? We really shouldn't know. We don't, but there's a number of things that go into the price of a home, and that's what this is kind of getting at. So there are things in this incentive that may increase the price of a home, right? A porch that, on a house that maybe didn't have one, might cost more, but when you can get more density, largely that's gonna mean a smaller lot and potentially a smaller home, which could reduce the cost of the home too. So the incentive does actually provide things that could potentially go both directions on cost. Really what the incentive and correct me if I'm wrong is trying to get elements that action is identified as quality. What are things that we wanna see in homes that maybe a developer isn't going to offer right off the top as their first offer for a type of home in national. Try to build in a little more quality into our neighborhoods. And an excellent question. The whole idea of being, if you pay X for a lot, you get more money if you divide that by five, then divide it by two. And so the more units, the more, I guess guess profit margin or just break even or feasibility. So good question. Appreciate that. Right. And so the Planning Commission held a public hearing last month and they discussed the request for the exception that it could possibly come through the Planning Commission so that they could make a recommendation to you all on that exception request then you all would make final approval. I have not changed that language within what we have presented here this evening but I did want to make sure you all knew that that was part of their discussion. After that they recommended approval of the lot frontage requirements as were in your staff report And so staff is also recommending approval of ordinance 24-11 lot frontage requirements Through oh Sorry didn't take that out you all don't have resolutions There was a commission yes That can conclude fire for Yes. That concludes my report. All right. I'll send my comments for after the public hearing. All right. Well, let's go ahead and open the public hearing, invite anyone to come forward at this time. I'd like to speak to this application of this ordinance. Seeing no one will close the public hearing and bring it back to council into the vice mayor's comments. Thank you. And I appreciate your indulgence. I think the Planning Commission and the council, I think, have signaled their support of the concept. And my goal is to hopefully help provide protections for those folks seeking affordable housing in the town without the lowest standards in the county. And I think affordability for new homeowners hopefully comes with some level of security that they're not going to be left with a problem, not of their cause that could have been prevented by minimum standards for roads that the developer meets and has to comply with before they're gone. Because once they sell a lot or sell the lots in the subdivision. They can't be called on or it's very difficult to call on them to correct problems. I was going to ask Ms. Amos and I've tried to focus my comments but it would help if I could look at the RIN exhibit. Yes. And I think here I don't have an objection to the layout. Again, the eighth person, I think it is at the end of that road needs some assurance that his neighbors are going to help maintain that road. And this doesn't have dimensions on it. We'll get into that discussion in the recommended ordinance. But I don't really have a problem with it if we can provide assurance to those property owners. And I would assume in this that the eight property owners that share in the road are the ones responsible for the road and the people on the other side of the public road. That's a public road coming up there until I think it's Vaughn extended and potentially the, I'm less concerned with the two people, you know, but I think two or more is basically a lot and I don't know if our ordinance calls for it, a road that serves two or more properties is that a? Would that? How would you define a road as opposed to a driveway? And this is what I hadn't thought of just for those two lots. Is that a road? Those two lots or is that a joint driveway? This right here would be a driveway. Okay. Share a drive. So my comments are kind of focusing on the other and to me I think you've got an HOA here that may include not all the lots in the subdivision because not all of them benefit and so that's a little complication but so I really don't have a problem so long again is the is that primary means of access for the last person on the lot is protected and maintained? Could we go to the industrial? I wasn't here at your last meeting. And we missed it. This was kind of my nightmare visual of what might happen. If you led a if you do a what's the term a purely speculated I mean condo I have no problem condo solves all kinds but as Miss Amos points out in the staff report that can be complicated but it does address and on the week around talking about legal requirements. Do what you need to do. Thank you. Mr. McRovitz. I'm looking at this is not only the four buildings, but there's nothing to prevent. The three additional ones along 2.95. And basically you get one, two, three, four levels of development there. It's not what they show on this potentially illustrative M&M master plan. I've been in some industrial park areas where it's hard to define the difference between a drive or how to maneuver going through an industrial area. I think there may be a potential in this development to have that central corridor be a public road and you put your utilities. And for public safety purposes there is value in having B dot standards for maneuverability. I think one of the issues that we're going to have in reviewing private roads unless we have some standards to address it. That are one of the turning movements, kind of, you know, a bus or not a bus, but a fire truck or emergency vehicle be able to access an M2 property, M2s are most intensive use. So, in my goal tonight, hopefully, is not the maybe answer all the questions tonight. I think Ms. Amos is looking for consensus. I'm gonna raise some issues, so I'm gonna agree with, so I'm gonna agree with, and that's going to agree with you. And that's fine. But my intent is, if we're going to do it, let's do it right. Respecting what the mayor said, we're not trying to burden the developer with a lot of extra requirements. But we are trying to protect the third parties who are not in this discussion who are going to have to live here. This is their first home. This is their pride and joy. And if we haven't done our homework with the developer, he's gone. And it's us. It's on us. And I tell you, we've had situations with in the county where the residents came to us. We had a private road built over a dam that recently broke and they went to the county and that was not pretty. I don't know if you remember that particular, anyway. So got to be careful how this is. The zoning, our spec would counsel did and but I think we have an opportunity if they don't go to the private road through the special exception process to maybe address some of the questions and have a dialogue with the applicant, can we make this better? So I support what the staff is doing with a special exception permitted and in concept I support the direction that the commission is recommending. I do have some issues with the conditions. And Ms. Amos, if we could go to that page, and not to belabor it, because I think she, as I said, did a good job, short amount of time, kind of dealing with my, in the first section 1734, I think the goal is not to make an M1 and M2. We already limited it to in the residential to RIN and limited it within the RIN to the court concept. So I'm comfortable with that. The M1 and M2, we didn't really limited it. I think the implication here is that our preference would be public unless there are good reasons not to be. So Ms. Amos is added in limited circumstances, which I think sends a message that this is not the standard. Obviously it's an exception, so that helps send in that signal but it's not one that we're likely to grant unless there are good reasons. And granting putting in the comprehensive plan again I know in the M&M development not to relive that but in the transportation plan there was a trail that went through the development. I don't know how that was addressed, my guess is it wasn't, but if through the special exception process there might have been a way to deal with that. I had some more language limiting M1 and M2. I'm completely on board with, if we had a gated residential community, that by definition needs private roads. If we had a data center, I think Dr. McGraw and I saw the level of security that those data centers have in Henrico. And I think our consideration of iron horse, we should be considering potentially private roads in that. So there is a need. I just, I put some language in. I was trying again to limit the circumstances in M1 or M2, topographic planning, security reasons, why it might need to be private. I really don't have a problem with Johnson Town Road because Johnson Town Road's a major thoroughfare, that link, and I don't really have a problem with the two roads I think they put in that are public because it's a grid pattern. I think the grid pattern has served us well. It gives you two means of access for security if it was a fire, getting two trucks to come from different directions. So there are good reasons there. So that's kind of what I'm getting at. And again, we both kind of had limited time to discuss it. And that might be a reason for further discussion. I think I had looking at the private improvement maintenance program. My concern is if we don't have some mechanism or a standard that will be doing something different on each SE and each one will be a precedent for the next one. And I don't mean to disparage developers because we don't have really good development without them. And the business is, I mean, they're out to make a profit. There are folks that will build to the very minimum that you give them. And those folks are all around us. And we need to be careful that if we don't set a minimum standard that we might get ourselves in our future residents and future councils into issues. So I thought that having a form that hopefully address the policies that we're trying to articulate in this ordinance approved by the town attorney and the town manager as a minimum standard. They could developers could always tweak it, but in this SE review you could accept the tweaks or whatever. So that was Mr. Attorney what I was referring to if you were comfortable with language that we approve a form that would be minimum standards to ensure property maintenance. And I think that the staff did a good job in coming up with a sort of draft, still had the word county in it. I take exception to that. I don't think so. But anyway, Alba Marr County, I believe in anyway. Not asking the attorney to develop language, to put in the ordinance, but to prove the form that meets the intent of the ordinance. Are you comfortable with that? Yeah, I mean, I've reviewed similar things for other localities. Yeah, I've reviewed other things like that for other localities. So I think that that's just an extra level of comfort for us that we are churning that if the developer goes forward that the interest of the third parties, the new home owners and property owners and a commercial development have a minimum level of protection without, you know, word-smithing what it is. And there was language in the Albumar County or the draft that the staff had in the report said the agreement shall provide that the private streets shall be maintained and substantially the same condition as approved by council, which would set a standard. You know, it doesn't have to be perfect, but the expectation is you'll maintain it as it was built. And Lord help us, there won't be any large potholes that never get fixed. And then number five, we get into the construction standards and comfortable with the black line. I didn't want to have a question if I may for Mr. Jennings. And here Miss Amos has chosen to drop the width and construction specifications that, as a non-engineer, I threw in there. In the count, the ones that I suggested, and we haven't discussed this, so this is in real time, so, okay, with Mr. Jennings. In the county, the private road minimum, there's a width, minimum. It's 20 feet and it provides for 8 feet Travelway so two-way travel 8 and 8 16 and then two feet of Shoulder on either side for Range or whatever's necessary That's a county standard I had heard and I may have seen it in the staff report or heard that some may want to go down to 14. My question I guess is, would you agree that having a minimum width and, and, and, um, uh, right of way and that it also gets you into alignment. One reason that you'll see later, you wanna put a brown sign on this road is because when our emergency vehicle gets on that road, he's expecting V dot standards. And we got roads in the county that do dog legs, back and forth, they squiggle around, V.0, you know, smooths everything out. So let emergency response know right up front, you're on a private road, be careful. But it's a long question. Basic question is, and also I threw in some language about the surface treatment and under-alignment. Would you be more comfortable because you and Ms. Amos, and I think primarily you for the road construction, are going to have to review and approve these. Would you be comfortable with minimum standard and not asking you to say what that minimum standard should be? But just the concept of having something in the ordinance says 20 or 14 or 1 inch of surface and 2 inches of underlayment or some words to that effect or reference to a standard. Right. I think there definitely should be a minimum, especially a fire apparatus, or utilizing that lane to get to those houses. There's definitely need to be a certain thickness to hold the fire trucks, certain width. I think their apparatus needs at least 20 feet width to put out the outriggers to set up for a fire. Obviously, we'd have to look at the situation. If there's a parking on that street, it needs to be wider than that too. So it depends on the use of the street but a minimum I would say at least 20 is minimum that I would recommend. And the other price. You sure I'd hug you but anyway yes. So I think my point and my bigger point, and again, I appreciate the patience of the council. It's all important. Is that we deliberate, maybe spend a little more time on this, give the ones that are going to have to enforce it a little more time, keeping what the mayor has said overall. I think this is an opportunity for us to make housing in Ashland more affordable, but at the same time having a minimum standard that protects the future residents of the town. And so it would be my intent to move to defer this ordinance 20th. Well, would you accept a motion or a discussion? I still have a question. Yes, sir. Everyone would ask that. Well, would you accept a motion or a discussion? I still have a question. Yes, sir. When would I ask that? Yeah. When would we be? No, no. Yeah. We'll go ahead and continue discussion in questions. I think I mentioned in 5, 4, Ms. Amos added the signage to alert the rusty vehicles. Is there anything else? I think those are the highlights. So anyway, I'm done. OK. The term street road. Is that referring to the alley? Good question. Not necessarily. So in which we're talking about. In which yes. Yes. That's the alley, right? In this, in for Cally Commons, the rear access would be, and what we would consider an alley. Okay, it's an alley, but it's been referred to as a street and road also. Is that correct? I believe that the vice mayor is calling it a street or road. Okay. Not sure that we would call it a hard road. And an excellent question. So, do we have standards for allies? I don't know. Well, and again, I don't think we need to have all the answers. And I think- I think there's some questions. When you finish, I will continue. I apologize. But I think it would be good maybe to consider if it because as I understand it, V.Dott would not maintain this. No. We would maintain it if it was public, but I'm calling it a private road because it's an alley that's private, not an alley that's public, which so maybe you want to clarify that point. I'm getting to that. I'm getting to that. I'm getting to that. I'll be quiet. OK. So it's an alley. So it's not public? Correct. Who is going to maintain it? So whether it's a road or an alley, either one of those words, if it's private, the town is not maintaining it. It's going to have to have to have- No, well not. The town will not maintain it. Right. So, the HOA or property owner would have to maintain it. Okay. And that's part of that maintenance agreement. Okay, because I had other questions, but since I know for sure that the town is not maintaining it, I don't have to ask the other questions. Okay. Yeah. I'm happy to answer them if you want to. No, it's not necessary. Now that I know it's private and it will be maintained by the H.O.A. That's it. But there are more questions. I have a few questions. All right. I just need to say for the public to understand. When I read Amendment 3 and then when I read Amendment 4, they almost sound contradictory. Can you explain how it can't be a adjacent to a proposed road, but then it has to connect to a road? It just reads kind of confusing. That's all. Right. So we'll use Callie again. So these lots down here to the rear are not necessarily because they're running on this cottage court adjacent to Vaughan Road. But they do have to have access and be adjacent to a public road. And so it's not you're serving a private alley through a private road. So they do have to be served off of this public road. So we wouldn't have a private road right next to a public road. Connecting to another road. Okay, thank you. That clears it up for me. I appreciate it. You can go ahead. No, I thought you were going. Now I got three more. How would the town enforce these amendments or codes that we write? What type of teeth would we have to make it happen? So really to make it happen. So someone would come and ask for this special exception. You all would review it and grant it based off of all the department's reviews. So the fire marshal would make comments and suggestions and he usually or they usually do say they need to have a minimum access. The public works department would say well we know there's going to be a lot of tractor trailers coming in so this road needs to be built to these standards. Planning might say well you need to make sure you have a light at the end of this private roadway and so we will bring that special exception to you with recommended conditions and then you all can approve it but as part of that it's also going to include this private improvement maintenance declaration. And that's going to specifically say who maintains it, how it has to be maintained, and what happens if it isn't maintained, and what those consequences are. All right. And what would we do if the HOA just falls? What if it just falls apart? What would good question? What would we do if the HOA just falls? What if it just falls apart? But what would good question? What would we, yeah? That is a great question, and I imagine, and I'm glad we have our town attorney here, but there could be clauses in that private improvement maintenance declaration where private property owners could work with each other and say, you have to fix this, or we're gonna fix it, we're gonna put a lien on your property or we the town if we decided to could go and fix the alleyway and put a lien on their property. But I hope that that would be the last thing that we do. Right. And I just want to clarify, no public services means no waste removal services, no sidewalk services, like none of the things that residents enjoy no pickup of leaves and no public services. Other believe. Other than rescue things that are required by. I think that's something that you can review as part of the special exception. If they're building this road to adequate V dot standards and our trash trucks and our public vehicles can get down there and it's a safe and accessible road, then I think as part of this review for a special exception, we can consider what services they could be provided. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay. And I just want to say, I'm all for seeing people want to live here in town. I think the town of Ashland is a great place to live. I love living here. Regarding exceptions, I understand requests for exceptions that would be in the interest of the town and new development that provide housing. But I would also like to see exceptions allowed for long-time property owners to have a chance to use their property who are sometimes in situations where things are locked up. That's all. I just had to say. And Miss Soapall speaking to you, we have a lot of historically platted property that doesn't currently have road frontage and they aren't being subdivided So they don't fall within the subdivision ordinance But they are required to have road frontage a certain amount based off the zoning ordinance and so this exception does not get to that because this is solely for R I and new developments new platted lots through the residential and incentive district. Now, if a property met the size requirements and new roads were built and they had, they met all of these requirements, it is possible that those properties could be developed. Thank you. Potentially they could apply for R.I.N. and be eligible to be considered for private rent. Okay. I was just going to say, I would hate to think that something like Cali Court, which is so appealing because of the answers and questions that we have, we would create something where, because they wouldn't have public access to things like garbage pickup and whatever could deter the development. I would hate to think that we're saying, okay, we're going to develop this cute little neighborhood, but we're not going to go in there and help you with our things. But I would hate for that to be, I'm glad you brought that up, because I would hate for that to be the situation. Well, we have places that they don't get the services and people get upset. I mean, either they find out late or they know about it and then want to act like they don't know about it, things like that. But I mean, you know, when there's a pothole, you know, we're the ones who get blamed for it. I understand that, but I'm talking about my new development with some new guidelines. I'm not only comment might be that just like you'll find in newer developments where the post office didn't know. Right. Yes, in one spot. So they put a spot up on the public road where that could accommodate solid ways and recycling. It's going to take some space, but they would get the service, but they'd have to go a little extra distance to get there. I think, again, and I think the staff has got a special exception could address issues like that. One more thing. Councilmember Hodges said a moment ago that they could potentially apply after I made my statement that they could potentially apply for RIN. You don't have to be a developer to do that. A private person can do that? Yes. Didn't know that. Well, I mean, they would have to have intentions to develop their properties, but that then makes them a developer, but yes. Thank you. We have some minimum. We do have minimum requirements. You have to have that 80 foot frontage of a public road and group public road all the R and and require R I and requirements. Just to make sure we're not giving the impression that people right. Yeah, the most easy. Thank you, Miss Fire. As usual, you're when I give them the impression that people open. It must be so. Thank you, Miss Fire, as usual. You're a person. I appreciate all the discussion. And just as Dr. McGraw had asked, I was curious about if it's a private road. Is there anything different for APD as far as from time to town? They'll ride up and down streets. And for the interest of public safety would you ride down a private road the same way or private alley and whatever you want to call it street. Okay. Okay and I am I'm more in favor of trying to find a way that citizens that live in Ashland and all pay taxes would all receive the same services without an additional burden of if you the seventh house down that I've got to carry my trash a whole life further than the rest of my neighbors. And on the technical questions of the width of the road, the composition, the design, the substructure, and all that of the road, I'm curious about, you know, we know that roads are expensive, and so repairs are expensive. And it's a shot in the dark. But if there are seven individuals living on this one private road, what might be an estimate of cost for them to fix X amount of distance of that road? And is it feasible to take that price and divide it up in seven pieces and say, someone living there making their mortgage payment everything else is it feasible that it can come up with the money to do the repair it if they can't You know what what sometimes you and I'm for this but agree with the vice mayor and you want to thank all this out Sometimes what you'll see in a neighborhood, if there's a little bit of decline, then there's a little bit more decline. And then individuals who live there and pay their debts have the means to pay their bills and keep things up, they decide to go elsewhere. And the individuals that have less ability to maintain, they might stay, but it can spiral downward if there isn't a way to keep things up. And I thought that's where you were going with your question about teeth. We don't really have any teeth. We don't want to have the teeth. We want there to be a public, what there to be an agreement, a maintenance agreement that has the teeth by means of legal options for people to press, to make sure they can keep their community up or their neighborhood or their street. But the feasibility of that, the law can say one thing, but wallets can't always agree with the law. So I'm an agreement that maybe we have more questions and what we can answer here tonight, maybe not. Ashland, I feel Ashland has bragging rights for leading the charge in a lot of different things that's been done in this town, different ideas, great creative ideas of the staff and leadership. And I think that this is our opportunity to maybe provide Ashland's answer. You know, there's and dwelling units, zoning ideas all over the state right now, individuals looking for ways to support affordable or at least a better inventory of houses. And this may be a way that Ashland can creatively do that within ourselves. But we want to make sure that we're gonna do something that has stain power, not something that can look great, five years, 10 years, 15 years, maybe not so much. So, I'm still in the thinking stage on this, but open to what my peers have to say. So, I think I've done more talking about today. If your council's ready, I would like to make a motion. Let me ask if there's any other comments along these lines before the motion. I'll just ask. So, if we don't approve approve this alley then what happens to this little subdivision? I mean what will happen if we can't approve this? We can't come to some agreement. So in this example they would probably have to make this road back here a public road and so the town would maintain it and there would have to be a turnaround here and So it would just be a larger road Because it had to be a public road to be dot standards and it would be publicly maintained So we have to do that they wouldn't move it for example and put shove all the move all the houses back You know and have the road where the tree line is they would just do something different to that so this No, the road would probably just come out further. Okay. Okay. Got a question. Because I think it's not that we would scrap in. And it's just, I mean, and hopefully this ordinance will allow, and once we get this first one in, people will allow for, this will just open it up for more creativity and more options. Question. Okay. You said they would probably have to make it a public road. Who pays for that? The developer would pay for that. Definitely. Okay. The developer would pay to construct it. We would then have to maintain it. We would have to maintain it. That's a good question. And that price then gets put on the purchaser of the house. We would have to maintain it if it's made a public public road and no Burton on the HOA at all, right correct Not for that road not for that But the development if I may its developers gonna pass the cost on to the lights so it will increase the value of business Opposition so put a more expensive road in it gets passed on I cost on to the lives. So it will increase the value of the business. Opposition. So put a more expensive road in. It gets passed on. I'm not sure that Mr. Whipple, who I think came up with a design, if there were issues raised about, I think is Dr. McGraw said or the mayor about the same level of service that they couldn't in a design way somehow address that and it's still but public would take care of the problem but it creates another problem. So I think the creativity, it puts the creativity issue back at the developer to convince us that we have these concerns, how would you do it without dictating to them? B.D.S. going to dictate. We're opening up the door and my thought is we need some minimum standard with the developer to work, but not to limit their creativity coming up with something that might work and still keep what I think is a perky development. Thank you. Thank you. I'm ready with you, Mr. Mayor, as you wish. I think again, I appreciate the Council's indulgence consideration. I think this is an important decision for us to make and in respect to the developers who I'm sure are anxious to move forward, I think it's worth at least a deferral to our next planning agenda. I didn't look up the date. Next week. Second meeting in June. It's in June. This is odd. When should July 16th, sir? Well, I think is that too soon? In August, I think Norick can come on the 6th of August if that would work for council. Would that work for Mr. Mayor, I moved to defer action on ordinance 2024-11 to the first meeting in August, which is the 6th Yes, it is the 6th. Yes, sir it is. Is there a second? Second. I want to consult my calendar real quick before I make a full letter. Yes. Yes, it is a 6th. You have a motion and a second. Miss Barn Barnhart. Aye. Ms. Soapall. Aye. Vice Mayor Hodges. Aye. Dr. McGraw. Aye. Mayor Trevet. Aye. Motion passes. Mr. Mayor, if I may. Yes, sir. As you think about this a little bit, council, just so you give staff a little bit of help doing the work you're expecting of them, maybe by the end of the week send us any those issues you are expecting us to come back with something different on or things to think about just so we don't miss something that you are hoping we will be working on. Right. Is that fair? Yes sir. We are waiting for I think good reason but that also puts due diligence on us to help make it efficient as this time passes by. Thank you. All right. So that brings us to reports. Okay. Sorry. Excuse me. Well, I had the pleasure of going to the YMCA for their camp visit. And they have well over 200 day campers of attending camp through this summer. I think that was an important thing. Obviously it's just the fun that they're having and whatever, but they are all learning to swim. And I just think that's so incredibly important that they're spending time learning how to swim. So it's a lot of fun visiting them and seeing the kids. Parking Recreation celebrated the longest day of the year on June 22nd. And I had the pleasure of going to the Jarnett Park and go fishing with some students, or some children. And one young man caught and released 11 fish. That was the highlight of his day, too. Planing is continuing to work hard. Just cannot tell how much we appreciate their time and effort. They just really make our job so much easier. And even though it's not in June, July 11, the Asher Museum is going to be hosting a day for kids. First graders through rising sixth graders is going to be a program on secretariat for kids. One of the things that they're going to do is talk about secretaries, great stride, and comparing the kids stride with that of secretariat. So that's up and coming. So that's up and coming. So that's all I have. I think that's a question on that. Sure. The register through the museum website. I believe that's true. Yes. I saw that on the website. Yes. Okay. So on Facebook as well as their Facebook website too. Okay. Okay. I've been russian. Yes sir. Mr. Weissman. I would like to thank my colleagues and the staff and the public for their patients while I'm to go chemotherapy treatments to address prostate cancer. Unfortunately, the treatments have a debilitating effect on my ability to attend and participate in all meetings. I had to miss the June 17th council meeting due to the first round of treatments, and I have five more treatments every three weeks until the end of September. I will try to attend every council meeting I'm able and look forward to returning on a regular basis. I thanks to my colleagues, the staff, my family and all those who have supported me during this time. Thank you. You're here, sir. All right. Dr. McGrub. Yes, I attended the joint plan RVA and transportation meeting, which was really just getting us to work together and having the same language. I attended the EDA, which was kind of neat. They've approved quite a few grants. They have these special incentive grants, and it was neat to see the various things that businesses were taking advantage of, but it's also beautifying the town and making it a little bit better. And I attended Juneteenth at Randolph-Macon, which phenomenal event. The police did a fantastic job of helping organize, lay out, and making it so that people were safe to walk around, but at the same time we're in the shade, and it was much better than being out in the hot sun. So even though it was hot day and we also received an award from the Hanover NACP and the ACP for our community service engagement and so forth. I've handed it to manager Josh and if you all want to see it and you're weekly visits, you can check it out. It's kind of a neat thing. Again, I want to mention that the Ashland Theater is going to have its major fundraiser full steam ahead. September 8th, tickets are not open yet. I know, but I want to just make sure people are ready because in August, when they do finally open up, it will be limited to the first 100 purchasers. It will be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the iron horse. Also the despicable me for is out so it's neat to have prime time movies at our historic theater. July 13th will be toddler takeover and because of the work with T-Mobile it's sponsored by them. It's completely free to the public and if you have a child from zero to six, they can come on and enjoy the toddler takeover, it's an hour event, and there will be a special guest there. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. McGraw. Yes, hope all. Okay, on July 5th, Council Member Hodges and I attended a town T here in Council Chambers with several community members the attendees were from the Ashland Patrick Henry YMCA active adults program and Community members and the Weinstein Jewish Community Center Then again on the fifth of last month, I'm sorry, I attended the dedication service for the newest habitat home that was completed on Allington Street. That's the home of Mr. Christopher Jackson. On June the 13th, I attended Plan RVA Day. I attended the first session in lunch. And that was a great opportunity to network with regional representatives. I attended the Downtown Ashland Association Board meeting. And Downtown Ashland Association fourth Friday is going on now until September. I attended the Market Ashland Partnership meeting and the next Market Ashland Partnership meeting is July 10th at 8 a.m. At the depot. Thank you. All right, thank you. All right. As already been called attention to, the opportunity to do some fishing in the Desjardins Park with two of my grandchildren as a great, great, great activity there. And thanks for all the presentations and opportunities there through Ashton Parks and Rec. Also attended one of the YMCA camp visits, and that was very energetic, and you can see a lot of fulfillment with a lot of young people doing positive things with their time. I did not attend the planned RVA day morning gathering, but I attended sessions in the afternoon, one on a data-driven decision making in one on affordable housing. That was on June 13. Had the fun of leaving there at 530 to get across traffic to Broad Street for the State of Transit report reception. There are just off Broad Street, a lot of GRTC individuals and other individuals involved with transit enrichment and had different posters up of some of the micro-link locations across the region and obviously the one for Ashland got a lot of attention, heard a lot of good things, and we'll be getting a full report, but good things on ridership, things are going very well for meeting the need through this transit initiative in Ashland. So very thankful for that. Enjoyed the Juneteenth gathering as well. And for a hot day, it was a cool place to be. Thanks to the shade of Randolph-Macon's trees, as we referred to earlier. Also, last week, attended Virginia Municipal League's elected officials' conference had a very good agenda. Looked at local land use, addressing cannabis challenges and human resources policies, strategies for successful youth recreation programming. This is information I'd like to pass on to our Parks and Rec. The Aspen Institute has a proje play initiative. Institute has a project play initiative. The whole idea is trying to make sure that the more positive aspects of recreation are what is in play to downplay competitiveness to try to lower injuries. What they're seeing is injuries are up in injuries that used to happen to 20 year olds and now happen to 16 year olds, 16 year old injuries are now happening to 12 year olds, ACL issues and things and young people. And also they've got an initiative for like Little League and other sports and trying to educate parents that this is supposed to be fun, no pressure, recreation. So anyway, I want to pass that information along. Also had an economic development presentation from Ross Littkin House, Vice Chair of Economic Development Authority and City of Falls Church. Excellent speaker and he stressed what I feel like our EDA is doing now to make sure that you get as much fiscal impact as well as economic impact. So you look beyond just the project itself, but all the other factors in play with economic development. How does this help your community overall beyond just dollars and cents for the square footage or whatever you're looking at? So I had the fun of taking the Freedom of Information Act training again, the Virginia Conflict of Interest Act information again. So I'm a little bit of head of everyone on those requirements and had a session on photo speed enforcement, which is an issue that's been talked about with the General Assembly quite a bit. We'll be hearing more about that. And one on the ABCs of board and staff relationships, talking about boards, councils, whatever, mostly with town managers. But if anybody wants copies of that information, I'm happy to share it. I feel like things are done pretty well here, but there's always, there's more to learn. So just wanted to mention any information on those topics, if you want to know more, I'll get it to you. And last of all, Richmond Region Tourism have the opportunity to be the liaison for council for their organization. And next week, Ashland will host the gathering of Richmond of RRT. There will be be meeting here in Ashland on the tracks at Studio 54. Richmond, Trans. No, I'm just switching. Richmond residential. Richmond Region Tourism. Yeah, thank you. Too many R.T.s and all that. Richmond Region Tourism, we will be hosting that gathering here in Ashland and they have opportunity to see the town, the tracks, the horse, and more than that. We'll make an information on that. Exhibited. Well, we can. It's their board meeting. So I'll ask them if they're going to have space for public availability. Oh, it's a board meeting. Yeah, it's a board meeting. It's a board meeting. What I'm seeing is we have 53 attendees signed up, which is a lot more than the board already. So I'm not in charge of handling the space, so we'll see how that plays out. I have to give an intro or respond to them about giving an intro to that group. So I will ask as well if we can invite some citizens to come along. Yes, indeed. Last thing is a question. I believe we have a ribbon cutting coming up. Is it next week, Il Fono? We sometimes do, but I took it out of my report. OK. All right. I'm sorry about that. OK. All right. All right. Well, the mayor's talked too much already tonight. I have done at this point and will invite Mr. Ginny's for the Public Works report. tonight. I have done at this point and will invite Mr. Jennings for the Public Works report. As you're coming up, Mr. Jennings, I will take another chance. I must be in a talkative mood. I did not have any caffeine. When we have a speaker come and speak in public comment on any subject and if it, if anything, seems critical of any of our departments, please understand that for citizen time we don't engage in conversation. We trust that the issues brought up will be addressed, but I just want to let you know when that happens, we have full confidence in our directors for all the departments in a hope that no one ever feels like why didn't they say something in the positive? We express our positive support pretty regularly and for good reasons. I just wanted to say, I hope you did not feel uncared for by your counsel at that point. No, sorry to not. Thank you. All right. The good news about that one, Mr. Moody's one, we can go pick him up and say, come on. Show us where this one actually is. We've worked with him for a long time. That's right. Yep. Good man. All right, thank you. It's funny to last time I talked to him. He didn't mention to me, but are. So you have the Public Works Report for June 2024 as part of your packet. I'll let a few things. Operations-wise, grass cutting slowed down a little bit this month due to lack of rain as y'all, I'm sure you all are aware. Also we had to start watering some plants downtown due to lack of rain. Crews also worked on the building next door. We've got some pieces of the building out for an auction which sold, which I, which I joke with miss wanted corn Well that it took us more in labor to take it apart and put it in people's car than what we got for it But it was still worth it. It was still worth it. But it was kind of funny. Anyway And they're also Getting ready to as y'all know take the house down. We're gonna build a permeable paper park a lot for our employees back there. So that's one of the next stormwater projects. Also our stormwater maple street, swale and trail project. You remember we had to shift gears and kind of break that up into three parts and as the mayor mentioned in the invoices earlier, the rap rectangular rapid flashing beacons or the flashing pedestrian lights to help pedestrians cause ascaque road there have been installed. So part one is done. We're working with Timmans, one of our engineers, to get the plans wrapped up on the swale portion of it and also working with Talian Armstrong for the 10 foot wide permeable paper asphalt trail. Also sidewalk trails, so I walk while they're trail wise. I don't know if you all remember, but way before I started, there was already plans done for the Duncan Early Street sidewalk project. And at that time, the funding only allowed us to do a certain portion. But so the rest of it is actually number three on our sidewalk priorities list. And so since we already have the plans, we're working with Italian Armstrong to give us a quote to move forward with that project. So, to sir. Take a question. You sir. Of course. That's an exciting project. I mean, it's one that has a dangerous turn in it. Sidewalk will really help. So this would be early and Duncan up to connect with the sidewalks or is this just a portion of it? Hopefully depending on what the quotes go back. We can finish the rest of the way down around the curve and all the way to Center Street. And we're hoping to also do some change improvements, curb and gutter that are on there too. And maybe even a connector path down to the trail in that corner. And without making a firm commitment, when do you think construction might start? Probably realistically next year. Okay, that's fair. Yes, but it's exciting that you're starting it. Thank you. I know I mentioned it last month, but just want to follow up and just keep on the loop. The Route 1 Arboroke to Ashcake project was advertised, May 14th. V.Advertise that project. The bid openings expected this, the 24th of this month, and hopefully the bids come in as expected. They'll be giving the notice to proceed this August. So that Route 1 project is expected to start this fall. A few more updates. The Mount Hermann Truck Restriction. It's actually made it through all the V.Dot signature process and gotten the Commonwealth Transportation Board approval. Good thing is V.Dot was proactive in order to signs already. And I just received word this afternoon that things expect to install the signs tomorrow, while weather permitting and they can do it. Yeah, so hopefully that truck restriction will be in place before the night's fourth of July weekend. A couple of their updates, CSX, unfortunately, I don't really have one, just so you know Victor Robner before he retired was working with their project managers on two separate members. I think we remember we talked just kind of one project about the signal arms and there's one project with upgrading the crossings and the pet crossings, vehicle crossings and redoing the ties. He reached out to him and there's no definite timeline for when they're coming back to do his additional work. Travis Wilson, who is our now project manager and new project manager and that position reached out to him yesterday and today, and still hasn't gotten an update timeline. So once we hear something we'll definitely put word out. But right now we don't know when they're coming back for either one of those projects. Also I know those questions about Chintel. They do have, I think it's six per minute, right away per minute areas open right now. And they still say they're on schedule to have the active service in one to two months for the town. So residents will be able to actually connect to Chintelle slash glow fiber in one to two months is the expectation. So with that I'll oh sorry. Is that completion in the entire town or just those areas that they're working in right now? So there's actually only six open permits left. They expect a whole town to be in service within two months. That's the goal. If everything goes well, I know they've run into a few issues where they've gone outside the right away so they're working with some neighborhoods and some residents with some easements, but they say they're still on They say they're on track to still be in service for the entire town in about two months All right Yes, ma'am why when you cross England Street at the railroad tracks There's a big orange and white wooden thing there. Why is that there? That the CSX contractor left that barricade there so it's their their barricade Maybe we should move it. That's a good question. I'll have to make sure we just get it out of the way for now It is confusing Good question I was just gonna make a compliment or share a compliment. Thank you so much for I was just going to make a compliment, share a compliment. Thank you so much for changing out the plants at the cross brothers because they were really tall and it was a hazard. Also thank you for taking care of the bees. I know that that was appreciated at HACC and also addressing the issue of a Poison Ivy at the Charlotte Park. So thank you very much for all those things. You're welcome. So Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy bees. And very tall plants that were hazard for people pulling in and out. Visibility. The hospital is yeah. OK. Very busy, but we're. There we go. Thank you, sir. All right, thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Miss Ehimes. This is my report from last month that I didn't get to give to you. I appreciate Ms. Raglan filling in. I very much appreciate you all having her and her coming and doing that. So some of these items might be old, but I want to make sure that you all in the public get to hear them either anyway. So downtown Ashland Association, we completed our MOU process with them. So we updated the MOU that we've had for the past three years, and that has now been finished and kind of put to bed. And now we look forward to doing good work with their new executive director. I'm not sure if that has been completed, but they have gone through the interview process, and it sounds like they have some really good candidates so we'll keep you updated on how that goes. Staff attended a tour of the port of Virginia, the Richmond Marine Terminal. We did that through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and we went with the Hanover County Economic Development folks. It was a really great tour and be able to see from my perspective serving on the Technical Advisory Committee and through the regional TPO my perspective, serving on the Technical Advisory Committee and through the regional TPO funding has often gone to the Marine Terrorism and also it was really interesting to see what those projects actually look like and the impact that they've made. I'm hopeful that through the regional plan RBA, that a regional tour will be set up so other officials can go and see that. May have already told you this, but CSX has pulled their funding and their support for the Von Road over past. We continue to work with Plan RVA, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation on potential other funding sources or other projects. Because we do have CVTA money, the Central Virginia Transportation Authority money earmarked for that project and so we just want to see if we can continue to use that money for leveraging or if we need to alter our course. So those conversations are continuing pretty regularly. The Economic Development Authority held a strategic planning session back in May through the assistance of EPR, our consultant, and so they're working on compiling that information. And I would imagine at the August meeting they'll continue to have that conversation and probably even to September. We received a tour of the new Ashland Elementary School and the official ribbon cutting. There was a lot of work to be done when we had the tour. I will say that. But they intended it all done for this school year. The official ribbon cutting will be done on July 29th at 10 a.m. This is a public event. They are excited to welcome everyone to see the school to go down the slide and participate in that special event opening this new school. We have hired and we offered and they accepted a position for our new planner position will be at planner one. Mr. Bannon Lucker who is currently interning with plan RVA and has recently graduated from VCU with his masters in urban and regional planning. He will be starting with us next Monday. As you can imagine everyone in our department is thrilled and we can't wait. It'll take a lot of training, I think, but we're excited to help him grow and as well as to help us here in Ashland. So Downtown Ashland Association, they hold this annual toast of downtown to appreciate sponsors and businesses. That is scheduled for July 24th at 6pm at Bird'song. They do request that you are RSDP and so hopefully that's open to all council members if you're able to attend. Just some update on the planning commission. We'll be working on the iron horse application, the rezoning for the eastern and into town. We'll go to the planning commission for the first time on the 10th of July at 6 o'clock there's a public hearing. The Patriot Glen which you all referred back to the planning commission we were thinking it would come in August but right now we're looking at September they're still waiting for the county to finish their work on that road that's them road that they have. Have some really sad news to report. We think an ink, which is kind of a long time stable here in downtown has closed and hopefully we'll be enjoying retirement, but that's a business that it's gonna be hard to fill, and we look forward to working with new owners there. As was mentioned, Ilforno is having their grand opening on the 16th at 930. So hopefully you received a calendar invite and can attend that. They have now listed their menu if anyone's interested to see what you can eat after the grand opening it has been listed. Elate, which is where the old sugar fix was, the sugar fix they're still making cookies and using the kitchen but but a late taken over by the owner of the Depot and the meat company, Chris Stem. And he's having multiple events, but his main event is once a month on, I believe the fourth Thursday, he'll have some type of special chef come in and cook and he'll combine it with wine and cocktails and such. And so that first one is the 25th. I'm coming up and again, you do have to buy tickets for that. So it's the first in their dinner series. And then my last item is staff. We were very excited. Kelly, a Franky Air Business Development Coordinator, has been working really hard to improve our relationships and our communications with Randolph-Macon College, in particular with their community engagement folks and admissions folks. And so through that partnership, we were able to attend their registration day. So we're accepted students, students who have accepted admission, come and register, and part of that was a fair. I can't think of what kind of fair, a fair where the different departments set up. And this was our first year and all the years that we had a table. And so the town of Ashley had a table and we got to talk to the hundreds of new students in particular. Their families seemed really excited to talk to us to know about transportation and safety in particular. There was also a table, which I think they always come with the Ashleyland Police Department, but we were excited to be asked to this table and look forward to joining that in the future. And I think we're also gonna go to the orientation as well as maybe some of the other events that they have. So I think we're gonna go to the next. Future master planners. I'm sorry, what was that? Future master planners in that group. Yes. Table and the orientation attendance. That's great. With students coming in and parents having questions of this new town that they're coming into, that is wonderful. It was a really great experience. Everyone who was able to attend and sit at the table really enjoyed it. Yeah. All right. Anything else? Any questions? Yes, sir. I've shared this with town manager and as aimas. Last meeting council referred the iron horse case to the planning commission. And I think council did the right thing. the applicant did not make any changes in their application despite expressions of concern. In their presentation at the Ashland Theatre they used the wrong comprehensive plan document. They used the document recommended by the Planning Commission. This is an issue that's related to taking a year between you can when you consider the amendment and when you consider the zoning. So their zoning application is not consistent with our adopted comp plan amendment and are more recently adopted conference plan. Basically the problem is they show beef to highway commercial across the frontage of the property in the town. And the plan is adopted, shows at least one parcel of industrial breaking the strip, shortening the distance for highway commercial. And that was a result of five public meetings that we held with citizens and it did not address all their concerns or arguably not close, but it was a good faith effort to try to address those concerns. They didn't show the master plan that they had didn't show the open space areas and entrance transition. And I'm hoping that the commission and the staff, I'm hoping that the applicant will acknowledge their mistake, adjust their rezoning request to reflect something that is consistent with the plans that we've adopted. And that won't be an issue and rely on the commission and the staff to send that message. And there's also been an article in the paper not mentioning any names. But it was reported that last year we approved a site plan with a number of industrial and commercial buildings on it. We did no such thing. And so there's a lot, there's some misinformation out there that hopefully taking additional time and getting it right will end up in a development we can all be proud of. And I appreciate your indulgence and I just wanted to express my concerns since I wasn't able to everything that we have submitted them. What they come back within the Prower Point they give Planning Commission on July 11th we will see when they present it. Yes. At this point they've made no changes nor acknowledge their mistake to the point. Right. And the Planning Commission will be coming here as well open. Yes. All right. Thank you, Miss Mayor. No, thank you. All right. Town Managers report. Yes. And I will be relatively brief. Talk about a few things that are in the report, but actually look forward for a few other ones. So I just want to make note, especially in light of it being this month, parks and rec month, the pool continues to do really, really well. We've had a few maintenance issues that have popped up, but nothing that either public works or our maintenance contract couldn't take care of, but attendance continues to do really, really well. You might imagine with the very hot weather and the lack of rain, people are going to the pool. Maybe the rain will slow that down a little bit here in the future, but Emmy continues to do absolutely wonderful work. And Mr. or sorry, Dr. McGraw did bring it up, but the award from the NAACP largely should not sit in my office. It should either be in Ms. Miller's office or honestly in Chief Aaron Hall's office for the work they do serve in that event. But if you do want to see it right now, it is housed in Ms. Miller's office. I think it's on her bookcase if you'd like to take a peek at it. It's very nice offer from NAACP and we are very thankful for it. Well, will that be on the town's webpage? So that individuals can see that? The public? If not traditionally put awards we've gotten on the webpage. Okay, just a thought. I trust yours and I'm off this judgment on that, Miss Miller. Oh, now looking forward, very exciting time. We're two days away. The parade is this coming Thursday, July 4th. It usually comes up, so just so, read it from the website today. The parade lines up at 10.30 AM and kicks off or steps off at 11 AM. So it can be anywhere along the route and somewhere between 11 and probably 11.30, you will see the parade as it comes along. And then be sure to join us at Arts and Activity Center for a bunch of really great events. I do know this year we have somewhat professional pie tasters with, I'm sorry, I can't remember, Liz from Bravo Bake Shop is going to be one of the judges. So go there and enjoy. And then news that I'd actually just received today, and so again, congratulations to the Action Theater, Dr. McGrider, I don't even know if you've heard about this yet, but Courtney was able to get a grant, actually don't know through who right now, so they can do some renovations on the box office area of the building. Obviously, it's our building, so I want to make sure you're aware of this work that's going on. We did actually help them replace some doors on the front that really couldn't lock, which was obviously an issue. But the box office, not a major renovation, really just removing one ball and setting another one to make it a little bit larger, but Good work on the theater for getting a grant for that work as well. And then again, not necessarily looking a little bit back but a little bit forward. And I know we'll talk about this and maybe you all will in your reports next time, but the Public Art Commission did vote last night to move along the ARCH project, and so that will come to you for contract approval, not design approval, but contract approval. And we're very excited, you know, the public that was there did give some compliments, had some really good kind of very technical but artistic comments about what could be improved, what should be worked on, and I think the artists did a really, really nice job of kind of taking that input and bringing it back to us. And so the unfortunate part is we're so excited, but it's going to take about a year to get developed and be installed. So we'll build up the excitement, and then in about a year we'll have a celebration in a ribbon cutting. So. All right. And then that is the end of my report. I will answer any questions you may have. Okay, you brought up about the pie tasters in the July 4th celebration. I'll be one of the judges, so I guess I have to taste all sorts of things. Oh, you're a judge too. Good. I just want to let you know my first time. All right. So we have political and baking representation on the judges. Very good. All right. Anything else to come before us tonight? All right. We're adjourned. You're all adjourned. Well done.