The Christiansburg Planning Commission is sending out distress signals.
A contentious rezoning request is delayed due to lack of a quorum, and simple directives from the Town Council for a report and recommendation on a variety of matters appears to get repeatedly bungled or buried.
Issues that citizens -- and voting council members -- must address include:
Meetings are scheduled for fixed days and times to allow members and the public the ability to plan. Skipped or changing days and times make it nigh impossible to track progress or attend these public meetings.
The governing Town Charter and Town Code are admittedly "
grossly out of date" and having this addressed is a critical matter. Once updated (in alignment with the superior State Code requirements, rather than recodified which allows any type of changes), the responsibility of keeping it current should be assigned to certain employees with guidance provided by legal counsel. This means Town Council should be having first and second readings and voting on these updates annually, following action taken in the spring by the General Assembly. Tracking these changes is one of the benefits of having a Town Attorney and
VML membership.
Expand membership from the current minimum of six to 9 or 11 planning commissioners. The State Code caps this at 15, and a larger group could better represent the wider community while improving the chances all meetings have a quorum.
Require all planning related appointees (including the quasi-judicial Board of Zoning Appeals) to
complete a certification program within two years of appointment.
Update rezoning applications to include a statement about the intended use, and require detailed staff reports on the subject property (current use, ownership record, adjoining property uses, traffic/road conditions, current and potential tax revenues, complaints, etc.). Place time limits on when stated construction must begin and conclude as conditions, rather than allowing perpetual erosion from
never-ending construction sites. Have this information posted on the town's website and available to the public at each meeting the application appears on the agenda.
This is just a start. The Comprehensive Plan defines the legislative intent of Council about growth and the future of Christiansburg. Its goals and strategies are largely ignored and demonstrates little community input. Echoing many of these in the Vision 2020 document has no legal teeth.
If Council receives only an application with little more than a Cliff Notes report and/or no recommendation(s) from this appointed body, they should routinely table the matter or simply vote it down and move on to the next matter of business. The outdated charter already specifies a report and recommendation, and Council should require both. Recommendations could just as easily provide a variety of options for Council's consideration, where they could choose from among several or blend into one they see as the best choice for the town (a customary practice for many governments).
Because a "no" vote by Council (or withdrawn application) means a one year time out for these requests, one can presume both the Planning Commission and applicants would begin to come better prepared, and able to demonstrate why a certain project is deserving of consideration and approval as it is beneficial to the Town and its citizens (instead of only the applicant).