April 10 Community Input Session

A meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 7:00 P.M. in the Fellowship Hall of St. James the Less Episcopal Church, at 125 Beverly Road, Ashland, Virginia.

The purpose of the meeting is to gather input from the community to assist with developing a vision statement for the introduction to the Comprehensive Plan. A group exercise will be conducted to engage participants to state what they value about Ashland, and how they would like Ashland to be in the future.

Former Planning Director Neil Holthouser will facilitate this session.

The comments and input gathered from this meeting will help Town staff and Planning Commissioners understand the values and priorities of the community, and how to address these within the Comprehensive Plan document.

Potential Questions to be asked on April 10 - please feel free to respond, comment, or make suggestions now on the blog!

Community Identity
What contributes to the best qualities of the identity of Ashland?

What makes Ashland different from other communities around Central Virginia?

What are the threats to the identity of the Town?

What can we do to maintain or get to the desired identity of Ashland?

How do neighborhoods, college, the railroad, etc. contribute to Ashland's identity?

Natural, Historic, Cultural, Educational Resources
What are our key resources?

What resources are missing, and needed?

What features do you value, and why?

What are the threats to these resources?

How can we best utilize these resources?

Economic Vitality
What types of commerce - including retail, offices, and industrial - do we already have throughout Ashland?

What types of commerce would you like to see occur in Ashland?

Are there needs that you have that cannot be met in Ashland?

What do people shop for in Ashland and what do they shop for outside of Ashland, and is that the right mix?

What types of commerce would you not like to see occur in the Town?

What types of industrial uses would be appropriate or not appropriate for the Town?

How would - and should - economic growth relate to the citizens of the Town?

Planning Commission Update

Upcoming Work Session
The next work session of the Planning Commission will be on Thursday, March 27, at 7:00 PM. On the agenda that evening, Randolph-Macon College will present their draft Campus Master Plan, which will guide improvements to the campus over the next several years, very similar to our Comprehensive Plan.

The Town will need to study the College's plans as part of our Plan process to help develop recommendations on how the Town will interface with the R-MC campus.

Recap of the last meeting
At the last meeting on March 12, 2008, the Planning Commission:

• generally agreed to holding the upcoming public input session to develop the Comprehensive Plan session. (see earlier post)
• agreed to utilize a consultant to assist with the remainder of the plan process (see earlier post)
• Agreed on revisons to the Environment Policy Chapter. Further discussions will continue regarding LEED/Green Development policies in this chapter.

Comprehensive Plan Consulting Services

On Tuesday, March 18, the Town Council authorized staff to search for a consultant to assist the Town with completing the Plan. Also that evening, they agreed to utilize a firm for the economic study for the Plan.

Comprehensive Planning Services Consultant

The Planning Commission has been working with staff on the Plan update since September 2007. With the recent departure of the Planning Director, it has been recognized that the schedule for the Plan process cannot be adhered to without seeking additional assistance.

A structure and process for the Plan update has been well thought out, and many staff hours have been spent. Also, three of the ten policy chapters have been drafted.

Originally, it was anticipated that consultants would be used in three areas:
(1) Economics (2)Transportation (3) Urban Design.

Now, we propose to utilize two consultants – Economics and General Comprehensive Planning Services. The Comp Plan consultant will need to demonstrate the ability to concentrate in Transportation and Urban Design.

Staff intends for this consultant to work with staff to fulfill the process and framework that has been adopted. The firm selected would draft policy chapters, develop land use scenarios, facilitate neighborhood meetings, develop graphics and maps.

Most data collection will be completed by the Economic analyst, and staff is still planning to undertake tasks that can be managed in-house.

This proposal will help ensure that the Comp Plan process is as seamless as possible throughout this time of staff transition, as well as ensure that the schedule is adhered to. Given the weakness of direction in our current comprehensive plan, and growing development pressure in the area we believe that staying on this schedule is extremely important.

Economic & Demographic Analysis Consultant

Response to the Economic and Demographic Analysis Request for Proposals was excellent. Sixteen well qualified proposals were recieved, and four of those firms scored an interview.

The selection panel agreed that Urban Partners of Philadelphia was the right choice.

Ultimately, that firm demonstrated a clear understanding of how we plan to integrate their work into the Comprehensive Plan process.

The study will begin by meeting with Town officials and community leaders to go over the scope of the project.

Followed by a data collection and analysis period. A small number of interviews will be conducted with local business owners.

Urban Partners states that the study will concentrate on these economic sectors: Retail – Residential – Office – Industrial – Cultural Arts & Entertainment - Hotel

Sometime early this summer, they will present a preliminary report to the Planning Commission for review.

This report will contain specific economic policy recommendations that will be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan document, and much of the information collected will be used to help at the stage of the plan when land uses are allocated on the Plan map.

Public Input Session Coming Soon!

The commission determined that prior to putting much more effort into policy chapters, that it would be best to develop an introduction statement, to state the overall mission of the Plan, and to have a statement in place to help provide guidance on how the policy chapters would be developed.

The Commission has decided to hold a public input session to gather comments. Several questions will be asked of the community to assist in developing this introduction statement to the Plan. The session will be held in early April, and will be facilitated by Neil Holthouser. The time, date, and place will be forthcoming. As soon as the details are finalized, they will be posted here, as well as the questions so the public may also comment on this blog if they are unable to attend.