Planning Commission 02/14/2024 - Feb 14, 2024

meeting

Prince William County Planning Commission 3h 1m 3 speakers 4 agenda items transcribed 7 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the purpose and scope of zoning text amendments in Prince William County?

Unknown 0:00

Legislation, Article seven of the state enabling legislation, section fifteen point two-two two eight four is what gives us state enabling legislate legislation and that's referred to as the preparation and adoption of zoning ordinance and map and amendments. Again, zoning text amendments or zoning map amendments are just changes to chapter thirty two of the county code of ordinances. There's lots of other county codes and all other changes Outside of thirty two, section thirty two, are handled through a separate process. So zoning text amendments just deals with chapter thirty two. So here we are to the process for the zoning text amendments. And this is a really simplified version of kind of what goes into it, but I'll I'll try to elaborate a little bit as I talk through this.

Unknown 0:52

So first You need an initiation. An idea from a Z for from a ZTA is formed, and this really simply happens when a conflict exists between the existing code and the desired outcome of a specific land use. You're going to hear tonight about industrial parking. We're going to have a work session on that. So for example, in this particular zoning text amendment, there was a conflict that occurred between the current or definition for fleet parking. So we uh are attempting to fix that. Um by having a zoning text amendment to remedy the situation. An initiation is needed to start the effort. Uh if it's a board directive, then an initiation memo is required. If it's based on a staff request, a full staff report is required.

Unknown 1:46

The next step of a zoning text amendment comes after the initiation, it's code development. Uh usually we have internal working groups that meet and discuss. These consists of members from the planning office, other departments such as zoning, development services, transportation, um and other disciplines as appropriate, really depending on the nature of the zoning text amendment and um what it's trying to remedy. At this stage, research is conducted, data gathering as part of the phase, and code is developed. Again, this is a really iterative process. It really depends on the nature of the zoning text amendment. And then you go into stakeholder public input. Again, depending on the nature of the ZTA, stakeholder or public input would occur either in the very beginning of the code development process or towards the middle, depending on the complexity and controversial nature of the zoning text amendment, as well as throughout the process.

Unknown 2:44

So you would want to meet beginning, middle, end if it was a more controversial project. The stakeholder outreach can include various working groups, commissions, and committees. Um as well as working with the uh Dorak, which stands for the Design Ordnance Review Action Committee. And sometimes zoning text amendments involve larger public meetings or series of meetings where sometimes stakeholder groups are more focused. Some zoning text amendments may involve other outreaches outreach efforts such as um surveys or questionnaires. Some ZTAs have over 200 or sorry, that would be crazy, over 20 stakeholder groups, as in the data center overlay district comprehensive review, and some are more limited.

Unknown 3:30

Again, this is not a one size fits all process in terms of the iteration of steps, but this is a basic start to finish um Review of what happens here. And then the last stage of the process is the public hearing process, which consists of resolving comments, attending and presenting at work sessions if appropriate, as in the case with the industrial parking zoning text amendment. That's in where we are in that process, as well as holding a pub planning commission public hearing and board of county supervisors public hearing. And if issues arise through public meetings, we might go through back in the process and do further code development or further stakeholder public input, depending on the nature of those issues.

Unknown 4:12

And then once the board approves a zoning text amendment, um changes to the municode or a municode that has all our zoning code in it from recently adopted orn ordinances take approximately two to four months to get on online.