Draft zoning ordinance withheld from planning commissioners sparks pushback 

By Valerie Cury

During the April 18 Purcellville Planning Commission Meeting the town’s planning staff appeared to be obstructing, by direction of members of the town council and town management, planning commission efforts to complete the zoning ordinance rewrite – by refusing to return the latest version of the draft zoning ordinance to the planning commission. Also, staff is independently pursuing alternatives to the zoning ordinance that the planning commission had already reviewed and approved. They are charged with insuring that the zoning ordinance reflects the citizens’ aspirations expressed in the Town’s Comprehensive Plan.

“I have a couple questions about the status of the zoning ordinance that we have previously discussed,” said Vice Chair Ed Neham. He asked for the articles “that have been more or less settled.” That way “it doesn’t all come to us as a waterfall,” when the ordinance has finally finished staff review.

Planning Manager Boyd Lawrence said staff had a discussion about when to let the commissioners have the zoning ordinance draft. Based on Summer Wilkes, the Town’s Zoning Administrator’s “communication with the town council,” he said, “we are going to probably wait. Well, we have to wait till May 8 after the joint meeting. Then we’ll get more direction on that.”

Lawrence said the editing of the zoning ordinance is “for the most part done.” He said “some articles could be condensed and there might still be some formatting that’s done.”

Neham asked, “So is the document in a condition where we can start looking at it? I don’t see that there’s a need to have to wait for authorization from the town council to start reviewing it.”

Lawrence said, “There is a red line draft and it’s been updated.” “But primarily we do have the draft, yeah,” said Lawrence.

Commissioner Nedim Ogelman said he felt like “we have been working on trying to fulfill citizen wishes and the wishes of the town council that approved the Comprehensive Plan and I am hearing all of these initiatives that have nothing to do – aren’t based in the Comprehensive Plan or related to what people said they would do when they ran for office.” He gave an example of the “town mayor saying he was going to run on slow growth, and preserving the character of our town.”

Ogelman said the commissioners worked hard on “turning the citizen’s desires in the Comprehensive Plan into zoning. I don’t understand what the delays are.”

Town Council Member and Planning Commissioner Chris Bertaut said, “I have not heard any substantive reasons for the planning commission not to get started on the red line draft. Most of what’s still to come for the draft is add-ons.” 

“So I think that we would make better work, faster work of this simply if we started work on the red line draft as it exists today,” concluded Bertaut.

Commissioner Brian Green said his concern is “geared around timing and resources. We know that we’ve got some members of the Planning Commission whose terms are concluding in August. As a body, we have come together to suggest some form-based fundamental changes that are key to the minds of the folks who sit on this commission. 

“My fear is that if this gets dragged out longer, and those terms are not extended [by the now pro-growth majority on town council] per our request, we are going to lose that body of knowledge and expertise from the folks that are on this team.”

Green said it would be better for the commission to get the draft ordinance earlier, before the commissioner’s terms end in August. “But we have asked for their terms to be extended.”  

Vice Chair Neham asked Planning Manager Lawrence if the town staff would give the commissioners the red line copy of the zoning ordinance draft by the end of the week or by Monday. “Boyd, do you think you would be able to accomplish that?”

“I will review that request tomorrow and with direction I’m given,” said Lawrence.

Neham said, “I don’t understand that part. What direction would you be waiting for?”

Lawrence answered, “Well, we have been advised to wait until the joint meeting. That’s kind of the point of whether there’s going to be changes, or whether we are going to go with the draft as is. That’s kind of the direction I was provided.”

Commissioner Green said, “That’s confusing to me.”

Vice Chair Neham said, “I didn’t understand that there would be that kind of direction provided from council regarding what I consider normal process of handling the zoning ordinance. I didn’t realize that the council was going to take it upon themselves to review bits and pieces of whatever they have of the ordinance to influence some kind of changes in direction here.”

Lawrence said that part of the issue was what Zoning Administrator Wilkes had privately presented to town council members. 

Lawrence was referring to a public presentation Wilkes intended to present to the planning commission during their regular meeting regarding an idea she had of town overlay districts. Instead, some council members privately intervened and directed her to brief town council members two at a time to avoid it from becoming a public meeting. 

Neham said he didn’t “see why that would stop us from reviewing all the other parts of the documents that are available.”

Commissioner Ron Rise Sr. said he would like to see the definition section of the zoning ordinance, “hopefully that’s in some state of completeness.” He said it “should be something easy that we could go over and make sure that it is where it needs to be.”

Commissioner Ogelman said he didn’t “understand this process” and it didn’t seem like the proper process. “For years after we’ve been working on this document and somebody comes along and says ‘Yeah we’re going to improvise here to change things.’”

Said Ogelman, “I want to know for this process as a whole, how it’s an improvement on our attempts to fulfill the Comprehensive Plan. What is this discussion doing? How is it linked to our Comprehensive Plan?”

“I shouldn’t need to wait until May 8 for this special meeting. Has our Comprehensive Plan been somehow vetoed or skuttled?” Ogelman asked, “What is it [staff’s proposed alternative districts] doing to improve or better align with our Town’s Comprehensive Plan?”

Commissioner Bertaut asked rhetorically if “this change in direction with respect to the process for reviewing the zoning ordinance – was this voted on by the town council?” Lawrence answered, “Not that I’m aware.”

Bertaut said, “So why are you taking direction from individual town council members on this matter?”

“Well, direction I’m taking is more from the zoning administrator’s communication with the town manager and the assistant town manager and then her communication,” said Lawrence. 

“But just for the record,” said Bertaut, “the town council has not voted to implement this change in direction.”

Vice Chair Neham said, “It seems that certain persons in the town administration or council have determined that the zoning administrator’s work product should not be presented to us until they had reviewed it and now we’re just sitting and waiting for them to say ‘OK, that’s good or not good’ and apparently they are going to want to sit on that until the joint meeting in May. I just don’t understand why we would have to wait for something that seems normal and obvious,” Neham concluded.

Ron Rise Sr. said that there wasn’t “a lot of transparency going on.” Addressing Lawrence, Rise Sr. said, “I can see it in your body language. There’s something being driven from a different place that’s out of process. I feel your uncomfortableness with that.

“This is a problem for this town, if this is what’s going on. If this is being kept in the dark and we are going to come to a meeting on May 8 without any preview – a commissioner is supposed to be ready to come to a meeting by reviewing information” before they come to a meeting. 

“It sounds to me like most of us are going to walk into this meeting cold and I don’t like that.” Rise Sr. said, “It is wrong.”

Lawrence said the May 8 meeting is a public meeting and there will be an agenda. 

Ogelman asked again if the planning commissioners “could see the work that you have been doing for us?”

Lawrence responded, “I will find out if we can release the draft and the zoning map.” He said, “It’s not for me to say so. I will review that.”

Vice Chair Ed Neham asked, “So it is the town manager or the assistant town manager who are making that decision?”  Lawrence responded “It’s the leadership of the town.”

Neham pointed out that the joint meeting on May 8 is to level set on a number if issues. He said the zoning ordinance document “is a piece of work we should be reviewing now,” and has nothing to do with level setting.

Town Attorney Gifford Hampshire said that in every jurisdiction he’s been involved in the planning commission continues to work on the draft, until such time as the planning commission thinks it is ready to present to the town council for its consideration with the commission’s recommendation. He said if the commission has a charge to work on the zoning ordinance “that’s what you ought to be doing.”