Rezoning requests, Uniontown presentation: THE AGENDA

Jeff Schwaner, Staunton News Leader
·5 min read
1106 N. Augusta St. in Staunton, where Ian and Leslie Boden plan to open their next restaurant, along with guest rooms.
1106 N. Augusta St. in Staunton, where Ian and Leslie Boden plan to open their next restaurant, along with guest rooms.

A unique and taxing situation

Scheduled for 5:05 p.m. in Staunton City Council's work session is a discussion of a request by Valley Area Community Inc., applying for exemption from property taxes for the properties they have recently purchased to add more local affordable housing to the city. They're also asking for a retroactive exemption from properties that the city has treated as exempt but now does not.

"In 2006 Valley Area Community Support Inc., a federally tax-exempt organization pursuant to section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, was granted real property tax exempt status by the Staunton City Assessor’s Office without proper authorization from Virginia state code or local ordinance," according to page 6 of the agenda packet.

Valley Supportive Housing, a component of Valley Area Community Support Inc. currently has six properties being treated as exempt for real property taxes.

The earliest a public hearing could be scheduled to formally consider this request is September 14, 2023, at which time City Council would also consider whether to approve or deny the request.

City manager Leslie Beauregard wrote, "Staff recognizes that this is an unusual and difficult situation in that Valley Supportive Housing has operated under the assumption that their properties are tax exempt since 2006. Unfortunately, though, this was an erroneous decision made by City staff at that time..."

The request is in the work session for discussion, with no decisions being made in the meeting.

In the zone?

Special permit requests, re-zoning requests. We've seen in recent months such requests come up in planning commission meetings, zoning boards of appeal, and yes, in public hearings at city council and the board of supervisors.

This week we'll look at a few such requests that will have public hearings at Staunton City Council.

Next week, as most councils, boards, commissions and other public gatherings of city officers take a week off (except for Monday the 28th, with Staunton School Board and Waynesboro City Council), The Agenda will take a closer look at how all these boards and commissions and councils work when it comes to these requests, which may sound like technicalities but often can be the spark that makes a community better, or that preserves it.

But for this week, let's look at one of the public hearings happening at Thursday's Staunton City Council meeting.

What is 'local business district conditional'?

One public hearing on Thursday Aug. 24 will be in consideration of a request by Ian and Leslie Boden to rezone 1106 North Augusta Street from P-1, Professional District, to B-1, Local Business District Conditional.

"The Bodens have recently purchased the property and they plan to utilize the property as a small fine diningrestaurant with short-term guest rooms," according to page 102 of the agenda packet. They suggest that the building, which was most recently used as a bed and breakfast, will retain 3 rooms for guests upstairs while turning the first floor into fine-dining that will seat no more than 24 guests. A detached cottage on the Overlook Road side of the deep property will house another two guest rooms.

The Bodens have already worked with neighbors to identify parking spots in addition to the spots they can have on the property, so they meet the threshold for parking to conduct their stated business.

The tepid-seeming line, "Staff has considered the request and has identified no issues," found in the staff analysis section, is akin to the Golden Ticket from Willie Wonka. It doesn't guarantee you anything yet, but it's an important statement.

At an earlier planning commission public hearing, a few residents had opposed the request, concerned about traffic and noise. The commission voted 4-1 in favor of recommending the request to be approved by city council.

Between the commission recommendation and the city council meeting, the Bodens revised their initial plan of four guest rooms in the main building down to three.

If the rezoning is approved, a building permit will be required for a change of use under the Building Code. A minor site plan, or a site sketch, will be required and will primarily deal with the parking lot layout and entrance off North Augusta Street.

It's a good example of how these changes don't appear out of nowhere without notification, but have to wend their way through a system of meetings in which the public can have input multiple times. The News Leader hopes to help amplify these meetings so citizens can be part of the decision-making process.

Come for the zoning requests. Stay for the Uniontown presentation.

The Uniontown Neighborhood Action Plan will be presented near the end of the City Council meeting. If you haven't read it yet, or missed it at the Planning Commission last week, Thursday's your chance to get some real detail on the past, present and future of a neighborhood that the city appeared to try to neglect and zone to death some sixty years ago.

Tuesday, August 22

Wednesday, August 23

Thursday, August 24

Friday, August 25

Monday, August 28

Tuesday, August 29

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: THE AGENDA: The city discusses its own taxing error over Valley Supportive Housing