Minutes

PLANNING COMMISSION

MINUTES

September 26, 2007

The Planning Commission met in regular session on Wednesday, September 26, 2007, at 8:00 PM in the Council Room of the Vienna Town Hall, 127 Center Street, South, Vienna, Virginia, with Melvin R. McCoy, Jr. Chairman, presiding. The following members were present: Charles “Chuck” Anderson, Emil D. Attanasi, Edward H. Chase, George J. Creed, David W. Miller, and William G. Womack, Jr. Absent were John Brunow and Laurie A. DiRocco. Also in attendance and representing the Town Staff were Gregory M. Hembree, Director of Planning and Zoning, Heather Diez, Engineer and Denise Rose Borgatti, Board Clerk.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITIZENS AND/OR COMMISSIONERS:

Chairman McCoy welcomed new Planning Commissioner member Chuck Anderson.


ITEM NO. 1:

Recommendation to the Mayor and Town Council on a revised site plan in the PR-Park and Recreational zone, as specified in 18-126.10 in the Vienna Town Code, and associated with the construction of additions to and the renovation of Vienna Elementary School, 128 Center Street, South. Filed by John Souser, PE, Adtek Engineers, agent for Fairfax County Public Schools and the Mayor and Town Council for the Town of Vienna, owners.

ITEM NO. 2:

Recommendation to the Mayor and Town Council on a revised site plan and site plan modifications for temporary building placement, entrance width, parking and loading space requirements, all in conjunction with the construction of additions to and the renovation of Vienna Elementary School, 128 Center Street, South in the RM-2, Multi-Family, Low Density and C-2, General Commercial zones. Filed by John Souser, PE, Adtek Engineers, agent for Fairfax County Public Schools and the Mayor and Town Council for the Town of Vienna, owners.

ITEM NO. 3:

Recommendation to the Board of Zoning Appeals on a conditional use permit for the continued use, the construction of additions and the renovation of the Vienna Elementary School, 128 Center Street, South in the RM-2, Multi Family Low Density, PR-Park and Recreational and C-2, General Commercial zones. Filed by John Souser, PE, Adtek Engineers, agent for Fairfax County Public Schools and the Mayor and Town Council for the Town of Vienna, owners.

Chairman McCoy said that Item No.1 was a public hearing and Item No. 2 and Item No. 3 were regular agenda items but since they all three (3) deal with the Vienna Elementary School the Planning Commission will discuss them together.

Mr. Hembree said that staff has been working on this application for the past several months with the applicant. Mr. Hembree said that this school has been operating since 1872 with the most recent renovation to the school in 1986. Mr. Hembree said Fairfax County School Board has proposed the construction of a one and two story brick and mortar addition , expansion and reconfiguration of existing parking areas and the placement of two temporary “quad” classrooms on the existing basketball courts to assist during the transition. The administrative, library, music stage and corridor additions will add 15,629 square feet to the existing 56,978 square foot elementary school building. Finally a courtyard addition would be created within the interior of the oldest portion of the existing school.

Mr. Hembree said that the conditional use permit is required saying there has never been one for the school and would be required under any circumstance because this is a major building renovation and addition.

John Souser, Engineer with Adtek Engineers was present on behalf of the application.

Mr. Souser said the plan is to renovate the existing building and with additions around the site; administrative, a musical stage addition, a corridor between the two existing connections (Mr. Souser pointed to this on the site plan), there is a library addition and a cafeteria addition. There will be two (2) quad trailers for switching back and forth for the renovation of the building. Mr. Souser said the parking areas will be expanded where the right-of-way for Locust Street, SE (“paper street”) is located and this will allow for better movement for the “kiss and ride” which will come in, come around and come back out and separates it from the bus traffic which will come in a different way as depicted on the site plan. There will be an increase of twelve (12) to ten (10) parking spaces and there will be additional landscaping.

Chairman McCoy asked how the current drop-off and pick-up site works and how the buses come in and out of the site. Mr. Miller said that his children go to this school and could go over the layout . At this time Mr. Miller explained the current parking configurement and drop-off how it currently exists.

Mr. Souser said also there will be an entrance and a more defined crosswalk and there will be a sidewalk along the parking between the parking and the ballfield. Mr. Souser said there will be some screening to help divide the parking and the baseball field. Mr. Souser said once construction is done , the quad trailers will be removed and that area will be re-paved and re-striped - the play areas behind the school will stay the same.

Mr. Attanasi asked Mr. Hembree to show what part of the site is zoned PR-Park and Recreational. Mr. Hembree replied everything from Locust street, SE over to Cherry Street, SE. Mr. Hembree said in terms of the improvement it is essentially a five (5) foot concrete sidewalk and improved green area and the only thing that is on that piece is the sidewalk. Mr. Attanasi asked if there was any drainage connected to the sidewalk. Mr. Souser replied “drainage you said?” Mr. Attanasi said yes, usually there are catch basins with the sidewalk and curb and gutter. Mr. Souser said there is curb and gutter. Mr. Attanasi asked if that will be constructed in the PR zone. Mr. Souser said it will be constructed in the right-of-way. Mr. Attanasi asked what part of the school will be used for the School Age Care for Children (SACC) program. Mr. Souser pointed to the site plan of the location. Mr. Attanasi asked if that will be new or existing. Mr. Souser replied existing. Mr. Attanasi asked Mr. Souser to point out on the site plan exactly where the proposed new expansions would be located to which he did. Mr. Attanasi said the only classroom space will be the music room.

Leslie Suger, BerryRio Architects, said in terms of the addition that is correct. Mr. Attanasi asked if there will be any classroom space freed up by movements to the addition. Ms. Suger replied yes. Ms. Suger said currently the library occupies classroom space so when the library is reconstructed there are two (2) classrooms that will be reclaimed through that and where the cafeteria currently exists, the cafeteria is being located from one area to another and that will free up space for the art classrooms.

Mr. Creed asked to have it shown where the sidewalks are located that are going to be put in and where the drainage is going to be. Mr. Souser said the sidewalk is in the PR zone. Mr. Creed asked if it was there now. Mr. Souser said no. Mr. Hembree said that what will be new in the PR zone is the sidewalk and a part of a storm drainage pipe. Mr. Creed asked where it will be connecting. Mr. Hembree went over where the storm pipe connects. Mr. Souser said a swale will run along side the sidewalk and direct it into the inlets by the bleachers at the ballfield. Mr. Creed said he believes that the water flows into the channel behind the Community Center and that dumps into RPA eventually. Mr. Hembree said it does but it would be way down stream. Mr. Creed asked if regarding the parking lot will there be any oil or gasoline that would need to be scrubbed.

Ms. Diez said if there that need to be cleaned, it can be seen on the erosion and sedimentation control plan, there will be inlet protections provided during construction. Mr. Souser said the siltation and erosion controls are temporary for construction to control sediment runoff. As far as the site and stormwater management is concerned, the direction he received from the Town because it is not an RPA area, no best management practices are required and because it is under 25% lot coverage no storm management is required.

Mr. Creed said that ultimately the water flows to an Resource Protection Area (RPA). Mr. Hembree said that the RPA is a ½ a mile away. Mr. Hembree said they can only deal with what occurs in the Resource Management Area (RMA) which surrounds an RPA and the nearest portion of the RMA is in the 400 block of Mill Street, NE.

Mr. Chase said based on the lot coverage comments and looking at sheet 2 of the proposed plans, looking at the information under zone tabulations., it says work affects only zone RM-2, but yet in the calculation of the lot coverage it looks like all of the parkland has been included, which gets you to the 22% and if you don’t include the parkland it seems like it would be a lot more than the 22%, and said that he is confused by the calculations. Mr. Souser said the calculation was based on both the PR zone and the RM zone and the right-of-way. Mr. Hembree said Mr. Souser added all three (right-of-way, PR and RM zone) together. Mr. Chase said that adding those together makes the lot coverage not 22%, but something significantly higher than that. Mr. Hembree said if you focus on specifically on the RM-2 zone than that is a correct statement. Mr. Chase said that is what he would wants to do. Mr. Hembree said that you are looking at there parcels, the PR chunk, the Town right-of-way and the RM-2 piece and all three of those put together because the way this development plan works, that is where they came up with the combined lot coverage of 22%. Mr. Chase said that is confusing and obscures what is happening in terms of lot coverage for the RM-2 zone and also clouds the issue raised by Mr. Creed that because it is under 25%, stormwater management is not required. Mr. Chase noted on the plans an error in the tree coverage calculations pointing it out to Mr. Souser who said he would correct that.

Mr. Chase said regarding the site plan modifications, he wanted to know what the existing conditions are such as parking space dimensions, parking location, number of loading spaces and entrance width. Mr. Souser said there were not any defined loading spaces for the existing school. Mr. Souser said there is a loading in the back of the school that could be used for loading. Mr. Chase asked if the spaces were less than seven (7) to which Mr. Souser replied yes. Mr. Chase asked about the parking space dimensions. Mr. Souser said the parking spaces are reduced by two (2) feet in length - the Town requires 9' x 20' and they are proposing 9' x 18'. Mr. Chase confirmed with Mr. Hembree that the existing parking spaces are below what the Code requires. Mr. Chase pointed out that some of the parking spaces are proposed to be 9' x 16.5. Mr. Souser said that generally in Fairfax County they have 9' x 16.5' parking spaces, saying that generally they have 9' x 18' parking spaces which is the requirement for Fairfax County. Mr. Chase asked Mr. Hembree why the Town requirements are 9' x 20' and Fairfax County is 9' x 18'. Mr. Hembree said the Town has never changed the criteria for 9' x 20' parking spaces because the Town believes there should be more “generous door swing area and generous length”. Mr. Chase asked what was the existing setback. Mr. Souser said 5'. Mr. Chase noted that so far none of the existing meets Town Code. Mr. Chase asked what the entrance width is as it currently exists. Mr. Souser said the entrance width has to do with Locust Street, SE, being wider than 25'. Mr. Hembree said the entrance width currently complies with Town Code, it is if you look at the fact that the parking lot extends right into the right-of-way, there is technical criteria of 25' to 35' width.

Mr. Creed said when they structure the conditional use permit do they have to put all of these things together. Mr. Hembree said the conditional use permit essentially authorizes the use. Mr. Hembree said the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) will specifically look at the use portion of the conditional use permit. The Planning Commission should look at all three (3) Items together and than he (Mr. Hembree) can report by way of his staff report what happened at the Planning Commission level.

Mr. Chase asked what the planned time was for the temporary quad buildings.

Ms. Suger said the quads will be there for the duration of construction until the classrooms are completed. Ms. Suger said in effect each classroom of the building can be closed down so the students can be moved out and that work can be completed and than the students move back and than they would take another section and move those students out. Mr. Chase asked Mr. Hembree if the Town Council will set a specific time limit or does the Commission need to do it in the conditional use permit. Mr. Hembree said the Commission could recommend that as part of that and the Town Council will establish that as well. Mr. Hembree asked Ms. Suger what the expected time frame was for the construction. Ms. Suger said mid year of 2009.

Sonny Serna, Fairfax County Public Schools, stated that by January of 2010 everything should be complete and the quad classrooms removed by that time. Mr. Chase asked Mr. Hembree if the Commission has set conditions for other schools such as Louise Archer Elementary School that was before the Commission a year or two ago, for conditional use permits. Mr. Hembree replied no. Mr. Miller noted that his son is in the quad classrooms that were approved for Louise Archer Elementary School and said they are very nice classrooms and they did a great job in the way they blocked off the electrical service and the classrooms really feel like a building as opposed to a trailer. Chairman McCoy asked if those are the same type modular buildings that are proposed for Vienna Elementary. Mr. Serna said that the ones at Louise Archer Elementary School are 10-classroom modular building and the ones proposed are a 4-classroom building used temporarily during construction.

Mr. Attanasi asked if part of the old school will be ripped out for new construction. Ms. Suger said there will not be substantial demolition of the existing school. There is one corridor in the storage room tucked back in the corner that is being demolished to clean up where they are joining the new and the old. Mr. Attanasi asked about the asbestos situation. Ms. Suger said the school has an asbestos management plan and there is a survey on site and typically there is language that should any hazardous materials even be suspected work is to stop immediately and the school is called in to remediate.

Mr. Miller asked if there is existing asbestos in the existing buildings. Ms. Suger replied yes. Mr. Miller asked if it is fryable or non-fryable. Ms. Suger replied typically non-fryable. Mr. Miller asked if it is known which it is. Ms. Suger said that she has not looked through the asbestos report. Mr. Serno said there is a asbestos abatement officer that is required as part of the State Code and if it is suspected that there is asbestos and during construction it is found, those areas are blocked off completely, they are monitored and remediation is done.
Mr. Chase, looking at the memorandum from Public Works, and noting there are new additions to the school and rebuilding of the parking lot and asked Ms. Diez if he would be correct in saying there is more impervious surface after the renovation than before. Ms. Diez said as far as the impervious surface it may have increased. Mr. Souser said that there is more impervious surface. Mr. Chase asked Ms. Diez if in her memorandum when it says the runoff is less than or equal to pre-development runoff is what she means that it is all being caught and piped to the stream. Ms. Diez said there are pipes that are constructed on the private property which can be explained by the applicant and there is no net increase coming into the Town system. Ms. Diez said it is runoff overground to the stream and also the pipes. Mr. Chase said there is an increase in runoff. Ms. Diez said yes that is being contained in the system on the private property to carry to the stream. Mr. Souser said the water is being picked up by roof drains, curb inlets or grade inlets and is being taken to a 30" storm sewer that runs behind the school. Mr. Chase asked if there is an impact on the Town system. Ms. Diez said that is correct.

Mr. Creed noted on page three (3) of the staff report it says that there will be “courtyard” addition and it his understanding that a “courtyard” already exists. Mr. Hembree said his staff report stands corrected on the record.

There was noone present to speak either for or against the proposed application.

Mr. Attanasi said that it would be nice to have a baseline of what on the site does not meet the current Town Code requirements and what does and it would have been nice if the applicant has presented that information with this application. Mr. Attanasi said it is important to have this information for the public record. Chairman McCoy and Mr. Miller concurred with the request of Mr. Attanasi. Mr. Chase said that he would like to see on the proposed plans, zone comparisons, where they do the zone requirements, the current existing conditions and the proposed conditions - this way it would be on the record and all in one place. Also, Mr. Chase said he would like to see on the drainage calculations sheets the actual increase and the water flow and to have a note that says the water is being piped out to another location for the record.

It was moved to continue the public hearing to the meeting of October 25, 2007.

Motion: Chase
Second: Attanasi
Carried: 7-0

Absent: Brunow, DiRocco





ITEM NO. 4:

Recommendation to the Mayor and Town Council on a final plat for the Blair Road (NW) Subdivision, a resubdivision of property located at 407 Blair Road, NW (existing address remains for new lot on the north, proposed address for the other lot is 409 Blair Road, NW) in the RS-12.5, Single Family Residential zone. Filed by Land Design Consultants, Inc., agent for Young Estates LC, owner.

John Sekas was present on behalf of the application.

Mr. Sekas said that they have met with the neighbors and they are happy. Mr. Sekas said they made adjustments to the house pulling the house as far forward as possible and they lowered the house and by doing that they have a minimum save area of ten (10) feet along the boundary adjacent to the Graham residence. Mr. Sekas said he provided a letter form his Arborist which says how the trees will be taken care of, also a cross section was provided as requested of how the houses will look and a tree canopy calculation was proved of the trees just on the subject property which shows that they still meet the required tree canopy requirements.

Chairman McCoy thanked Mr. Sekas for following through on the issues raised by the Planning Commission.

Mr. Miller brought up that he just read about a court case in the Commonwealth of Virginia regarding trees. Mr. Hembree said that if a trees roots or the trees limbs are encroaching on someone else’s property, the property owner has a right through self- help to remove that. If the trees roots and the limbs are beginning to create a nuisance factor such as “lifting” a sidewalk, knocking down a retaining wall, than the affected propertyowner notifies the adjoining propertyowner and they do not do anything about it, they would be liable in case of damage.

There was noone present to speak either for or against the application.


It was moved to recommend to the Mayor and Town Council on a final plat for the Blair Road (NW) Subdivision, a resubdivision of property located at 407 Blair Road, NW (existing address remains for new lot on the north, proposed address for the other lot is 409 Blair Road, NW) in the RS-12.5, Single Family Residential zone. Filed by Land Design Consultants, Inc., agent for Young Estates LC, owner.

Motion: Creed
Second: Womack
Carried: 6-0-1

Abstain: Anderson
Absent: Brunow, DiRocco


It was moved to approve the minutes of September 5, 2007 with a minor correction.

Motion: Attanasi
Second: Miller
Carried: 6-0-1

Abstain: Anderson
Absent: Brunow, DiRocco


It was moved to adjourn at 9:03 PM.

Motion: Chase
Second: Creed
Carried: 7-0

Absent: Brunow, DiRocco


Respectfully Submitted



Denise Rose Borgatti
Board Clerk

Town Government  / Town Services  / Regulations & Ordinances  / Town Information  / Town Departments  / Mailbox