Thread by @socialistdogmom

the boys over on gab are having a meltdown over this afternoon's press conference, but life goes on here in charlottesville -- i've got a planning commission work session to struggle to pay attention to. sadly this is taking place at the same time as the tree commission meeting.

a staff member is filling the commission in on how last night’s city council meeting went. several of the agenda items were things the commission had issued recommendations on - upzoning of the property on carlton, the SUP for the hotel on emmet

last night’s board & commission appointments are effective immediately, so this is @rory096’s first meeting on the planning commission. apparently hunter smith has resigned the commission as of last week. ten minutes after start time & we don’t have a quorum in the room.

planning commission member jody lahendro may be down the hall at the tree commission meeting, also taking place now. municipal government is a thrill a minute, y’all.

i’m having a lot of trouble mustering up any enthusiasm for ~streetscapes~ given everything else going on in this city. at least this powerpoint is of higher quality than your average meeting presentation.

oh yikes - apparently only 800-something people have completed the survey they put out... and it’s overwhelmingly skewed with high income, white respondents.

cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/3…

if you live in charlottesville, you can take the planning commission’s survey before this thursday.

surveymonkey.com/r/cvillecomppl…

a fourth member of the planning commission has arrived. gary was also just appointed last night - maybe he didn’t realize there was a meeting tonight & his appointment was effective immediately?
90 minutes into the meeting, we have a quorum.

i feel like we’ve been talking about the comprehensive plan forever - i didn’t realize the document has to be done & submitted to council in six weeks. that’s coming up awfully fast.

new planning commission member @rory096 asks what software they use to keep track of the comprehensive plan & the changes made to it. planning manager missy creasy says, flatly, “we have word.”

learn something new every day: apparently the city cannot legally impose a speed limit of below 25mph except in school zones. i assume this is a dillon rule thing.

several planning commissioners are excited about the possibility of seeing the bird scooters come to charlottesville. the city staffer at the table says, tiredly, “it’s in the works. it’s painfully in the works.”

i didn’t have an opinion about the scooters, really, until i saw one trip a cop.
the scooters are antifascist.

https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1033740642059517954?s=21

this seems to be gary’s first planning commission meeting not just as a member of the commission, but period. he seems surprised and upset to hear these meetings are often long. sorry, gary.
meeting adjourned for tonight, though.