1 Appomattox Town Council
Joint Public Hearing September 27, 2016
The Appomattox Town Council and Appomattox Town Planning Commission held a joint public hearing on Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at the Appomattox Municipal Building, 210 Linden Street, Appomattox, Virginia with Mayor Harvey presiding.
Town Council Members present: Timothy W. Garrett, C. Lewis McDearmon, Jr., Mary Lou Spiggle, M. Erin Finch, Steven T. Conner
Planning Commission members present: Marvin Mitchell, S. L. Ferguson, and Claudia Puckette. Absent: Roger Carson
Others present: Ashlie Walter, News & Advance; Daniel Puckette, Times Virginian; George Aznavorian, Steven Conner (Agent), Kenny Gobble, Jeff Elder, Facilities Director; Philipp Gabathuler, Town Manager and Roxanne W. Casto, Clerk of Council.
Mayor Harvey called the Town Council public hearing to order.
Marvin Mitchell, Chairman called the Planning Commission public hearing to order.
Mayor Harvey stated the purpose of the public hearing:
Latitude 37 Appomattox, LLC does hereby request a conditional use permit for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) to cover the entire property formerly known as Thomasville Furniture. The property is located at 310 Founders Lane, Appomattox, VA. The property is further identified as Tax Map Identification Number 64A1 (A) 3 and is approximately 85.49 acres in size. The property is bordered by Richmond Highway (US460) to the North, Confederate Blvd. to the east, Appomattox County Public School property and VDOT property to the west, and Norfolk-Southern Railroad property to the south.
Latitude 37 intends to develop the property into four designated areas—a map and design regulations that can be obtained upon request from the Town Office located at 210 Linden St., Appomattox, VA 24522 between the hours of 8:30-4:30PM Monday-Friday. • Area 1—designated in yellow on the concept plan—is approximately 41.08 acres in size
and is planned for a mix of uses as enumerated in the Development Guidelines.
• Area 2—designated in red on the concept plan—is approximately 34.95 acres in size and
is planned for a mix of uses as enumerated in the Development Guidelines.
• Area 3—designated in purple on the concept plan—is approximately 7.01 acres and is
planned for a mix of uses as enumerated in the Development Guidelines.
• Area 4—designated in blue—is approximately 3.28 acres and is planned for a mix of uses
as enumerated in the Development Guidelines.
Statement from Steven T. Conner: I, Steven T. Conner, will abstain from voting or participating in discussion on this petition due to having a personal interest in this transaction. I am disqualified from participating in this transaction pursuant to Subdivision A 1 of Section 2.2-3112 of the Code of Virginia. My interest is that I serve as the real estate
2 Appomattox Town Council
Joint Public Hearing September 27, 2016
agent for the property owner, Latitude 37 Appomattox LLC. My real estate business is known as Steven T. Conner Real Estate, 536 Court Street, Appomattox, Virginia.
Kenny Gobble – 720 Woodlawn Trail, Appomattox Virginia – Thank you for allowing me to speak. In regards to the Conditional Use Permit presented today. I would like to say I am not against the development completely. I am for growth for our community. There are tons of unknowns here and we need to know exactly what the plans are for the development of the property before approving a smorgasbord conditional use permits for a property that could change the face of our community. In the 13 years I have been selling RE I have seen some of these presented for the good and some for the bad. I just want to make sure ours is for the good. I think a plan by the developer that is detailed with their renditions should be a reasonable request. You might have a vision as the Town Council of what he means and he might have a different vision. It needs to be in writing and detailed as specifics. I also have a list of questions: 1 – The additional tax burden this will put on our community. Will this create additional jobs to help with the tax burden? Say we have 50 apartments/lofts put above the retail space. The 50 units could have 50 additional kids and then 1.5 parents per unit so you’re looking at another 125 people. We are looking at having to upgrade our school systems. If you have tenants how are you going to offset the tax expenses, additional police, additional rescue and fire. The community is going to have to absorb that and the least we should put on it. Do we limit this to 50 or 100 units to the property? He is a smart business man and knows he needs to the retail space to offset the cost. 2 – What are we opening the door for? Are we going to allow other businesses to have a second floor apartment? We are opening Pandora’s box with that. I am sure there are plenty of retail space that would like to offset their losses right now with vacant apartment space and they are not allowed to put apartments above retail right now. I’ll be the first to tell you we need more rental property in Appomattox. There are investors who will bring that. Do we want to take the epicenter and turn it into apartments? I know you all have a plan – is this in your plan? I beg of you to consider the long term effects of this on our community, on our children’s community and their future in this community. Without discussion can anyone be able to make a decision like this in our community. This is the largest development in our community since Thomasville. I love Appomattox just as much as you do. I understand that we are not Wyndhurst, we don’t have the colleges to support this. We need to be ok with just being Appomattox. Are loft apartments going to bring more jobs? We already have lots of citizens, without more jobs. Please think of the impact and get everything in writing. Provide us with something that is more concrete. The citizens have put a trust in you to make the right decision. Don’t make a knee jerk reaction just to have something in the Thomasville plant. Thank you.
Mayor Harvey closed the public hearing and the Planning Commission will recess into the Conference Room.
Roxanne W. Casto, MMC Clerk
Paul D. Harvey Mayor