City Hall

City of Harrisonburg

409 South Main Street

Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Meeting Minutes - Final

Planning Commission

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

6:00 PM

Council Chambers

Call To Order

The Harrisonburg Planning Commission held its regular meeting on Wednesday February 11,

2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, 409 South Main Street.

Roll Call/Determination of Quorum

Members present: Richard Baugh, Chair; Councilmember Laura Dent; KC Kettler; Rob Jezior,

and Randy Seitz. Shannon Porter, Vice Chair, and Heja Alsindi were absent. Also present: Adam

Fletcher, Director of Community Development; Thanh Dang, Deputy Director of Community

Development; Meg Rupkey, Planner; Wesley Russ, Deputy City Attorney; and Nyrma Soffel,

Acting Secretary.

5 -

Present

Absent

Richard Baugh, City Council Representative Laura Dent, Kenneth Kettler , Randall

Seitz, and Stanley Jezior

2 - Heja Alsindi, and Shannon Porter

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the January 14, 2026 Planning Commission Meeting

3.a.

Chair Baugh asked if there were any corrections, comments or a motion regarding the January 14,

2026, Planning Commission meeting minutes.

Commissioner Kettler moved to approve the January 14, 2026, Planning Commission meeting

minutes.

Commissioner Jezior seconded the motion.

The motion to approve the January 14, 2026, Planning Commission meeting minutes passed by

voice vote (5-0).

motion was made by Kettler, seconded by Jezior, that this Minutes be approved. The

motion carried by a voice vote.

New Business

4.a.

Consider a request from The Edge Realty Partners LLC for variances from the

Subdivision Ordinance related to street design standards for an undeveloped portion

of Franklin Street located between parcels addressed as 625 and 630 Franklin Street

Please see attachment 8 in Legistar for the full minutes extract.

Click here to enter the action/summary (insert the summary from the memo here

5 - Baugh, City Council Representative Dent, Kettler, Seitz and Jezior

Yes:

No:

2 - Alsindi and Porter

Absent:

Public Comment

None.

Report of Secretary & Committees

7.a. Rockingham County Planning Commission Liaison Report

Chair Baugh reported on the February 3, 2026 Rockingham County Planning Commission

meeting. The following items were on the agenda:

Public hearing request from Rockingham County staff to amend Section 17-1003.02 of

the Rockingham County Code to allow three years for the commencement of solar

projects, energy storage projects, and residential projects approved by Special Use

Permit, as mandated by updates to Virginia State Code.-Approved (3-0)

Public hearing request from Rockingham County staff to amend Table 17-606 and

Section 17-607 of the Rockingham County Code to amend the supplemental standards

for the use Large solar energy facility, and to amend the land use table for the uses Large

solar energy and Large solar energy installed over impervious surfaces-Approved (3-0)

Public hearing request from Rockingham County staff to amend Section 17-607 of the

Rockingham County Code to amend the setback requirements for agricultural uses in and

in the near vicinity to urban growth areas.-Approved (3-0)

7.b. City Council Report

Councilmember Dent reported that there were no public hearing items from Planning Commission

that were presented to City Council on February 10, 2026. Ms. Dang added that Planning

Commission items from January 14, 2026 will be presented to City Council on February 24.

Other Matters

Ms. Dang said if you remember a few months ago, we had some issues with scammers scraping

information off of our agendas and impersonating our office to contact applicants and their

representatives to demand payments. Fortunately, as far as I am aware, folks who have received

emails from people impersonating the City of Harrisonburg have called our office and talked to

our staff and we have advised them not to make those payments. This is something that has been

happening in other communities in Virginia and across the Country. To help reduce that type of

thing happening, we are now is redacting contact information from applications we are posting on

Legistar. We are removing applicant and their representative’s phone numbers, email addresses

and physical addresses from the application. That information is still publicly available if somebody

wants to call our office to get in contact with the developer. We can pass that information on to

people who call our office. We just did not want to put that out there on the internet anymore

where people can scrape that information. If you hear community members asking you questions

about why they cannot read that information when they go to Legistar, let them know the reason

and they can contact Community Development for the information.

8.a. Review Summary of next month's applications

Ms. Dang said in March we have three rezonings. One on Franklin Street. They have a proffer

amendment they want to bring forth. There is a rezoning at 851 Madison Street that includes also

a special use permit for that same property. Then The Link apartments will be back here in March

for public hearing.

Chair Baugh said I assume that given how that went with the vast difference in public interest in

the Planning Commission and the City Council, staff and everybody will be preparing for a sizable

crowd.

Commissioner Kettler asked do we want to have the second meeting instead?

Ms. Dang said I would feel comfortable with just having one meeting to consider all four of these

items.

Councilmember Dent said several of us went to the Virginia Municipal League Legislative Day

and there was one bill that we are fairly horrified by that would essentially gut local authority for

zoning. In the sense that they were saying that multifamily buildings would be allowed by right in at

least 75% of all commercially zoned properties. What is the point of zoning anymore? What are

we going to do in Planning Commission, if they do not have to come to us for approval? Our

misgiving about this is, if any size multifamily could be built anywhere in commercial districts, what

are developers going to do? Build student housing. So much for the push for affordability. We

were, for once, really in sync with our representatives on this. This is going to have unintended

consequences for us in Harrisonburg if it goes through. The whole legislative process is so back

and forth. It goes from the Senate to the House and eventually to the Governor. So far it seems to

be sailing through as is. I think that this would be a time to lean on the Governor’s office because

they have the option to amend it before signing it. I think, given the push for affordability and build

as much housing as possible, it may well go through, as is. The catch is that it would go into effect

as written January 1, 2027.

Mr. Russ said the commercial designation at least in the Senate version would capture any zoning

district where a commercial use is permitted by right. R-3 where we allow professional offices by

right. All of that falls into this category as well. It would not just be B-2 and B-1.

Councilmember Dent said maybe I was overstating it, saying it guts our zoning, but in some

important ways it does, potentially.

Commissioner Kettler said sort of tangential to that… and I have heard about this. Part of my

thinking is, I do not like not having that kind of local control that I think is helpful. The other part

that I am thinking is that we have had some extremely restrictive zoning for at least three decades

that has led to the position that we are in, and that is why that kind of thing can be incredibly

popular. My question is do we have an update on the Zoning reform process for Harrisonburg?

Councilmember Dent said this could throw that into question too. Like what do we do about this

if it goes through?

Commissioner Kettler said I believe there is also a proposed bill for ADUs [Accessory Dwelling

Units] by right. I mean the state may well overtake us on a number of things.

Councilmember Dent said and manufactured housing. I can see the legitimate push behind it to get

more housing out there. Where is the balance between local control and having a really strong

push for housing? We are often fighting an uphill battle when there is opposition to housing that we

need. My comment on this was that it seems like a sledgehammer when we need a screwdriver.

Where is the balance? In the case of The Link, I think there has been a lot of benefit to the robust

community engagement to improve the project overall. If we no longer have the option to do that,

there would be no proffers, no special use permits, no kinds of controls that we could put on.

Then we are losing the opportunity to improve the projects by community engagement. Where is

the lid on that to make a community engagement beneficial overall, instead of obstructionist, which

I think is what this bill is sort of over-reacting to.

Mr. Russ said it will be interesting to see how it all plays out during the legislative process. It

moves very quickly and then slowly and then quickly again.

Councilmember Dent said I listened in and wrote in comments yesterday to a bunch of bills that

are in committee about energy, like funding for data centers and making sure they pay for their

own electricity. There were some wins and losses and disappointments and tabled. It is interesting

being more in tune with the legislative process because there is a lot going on right now.

Commissioner Kettler said do we have an update on the zoning reform?

Mr. Fletcher said are you talking about the Zoning Ordinance Update Project?

Commissioner Kettler said yes.

Ms. Dang said we will share an update with you later if we could get through this next set of things

that we are working on.

Adjourment

The meeting adjourned at 7:08 PM.

NOTE TO THE PUBLIC

Staff will be available at 4:00 p.m. on the Tuesday before the next Planning Commission

meeting for those interested in going on a field trip to view the sites on the next agenda.

INTERPRETATION SERVICES

Language interpretation service in Spanish, Arabic and Kurdish is available for Planning

Commission meetings. To ensure that interpreters are available at the meeting, interested

persons must request the accommodation at least four (4) calendar days in advance of the

meeting by contacting the City Clerk at (540) 432-7701 or by submitting a request online at:

www.harrisonburgva.gov/interpreter-request-form

El servicio de intérpretes inglés-español está disponible para las reuniones públicas de la

Comisión de Planificación. Para asegurar la disponibilidad de intérpretes, cualquier

interesado deberá solicitar la presencia de un intérprete al menos cuatro (4) días calendarios

antes de la reunión comunicándose con la Secretaría Municipal al (540) 432-7701 o por

medio de la página por internet al:

https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/interpreter-request-form

NOTE TO THE PUBLIC

Residents/Media will be able to attend the meeting.

The Public can also view the meeting live on:

•

The City’s website, https://harrisonburg-va.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Public Education Government Channel 1072

A phone line will also be live where residents will be allowed to call in and speak with Planning

Commission during the Public Hearings and the Public Comments portion of the night’s

meeting. We ask those that wish to speak during the public comment period to not call in

until after all the public hearings and public comment on those have been heard. This will

avoid anyone calling on any other item from holding up the queue and then being asked to call

back at a later time.

The telephone number to call in is: (540) 437-2687

Residents also may provide comment prior to the meeting by visiting this page: