By Lizzie Stone, city council reporter
Notice for the first public hearing for the proposed rezoning for the Link Apartment project downtown wasn’t published, as required by law, in the newspaper in July before the planning commission meeting where public input was heard. The missing notice means the city must redo the public hearing process, sending the developers’ application back to the city planning commission for public input.
The six-story apartment project, which is proposed for several lots between Main and Liberty streets — including the Lindsey Funeral Home building — has generated quite a bit of debate among city residents and pushback from many neighbors in the Old Town area of Harrisonburg. The Aug. 12 city council meeting lasted more than five hours and attracted more than 230 people, many of whom offered their opinions about the project.
City council members requested at their Aug. 26 meeting that the developers host a facilitation process to gather more community feedback before they voted on the project.
A spokesperson for the developers, Todd Rhea, said they are “enthusiastic” about an engaged, facilitated community feedback process. They are working on choosing mediators, and expect the final feedback process to be led by an impartial third party and will take 6-8 weeks.
Rhea said the developers, Timberwolf Capital Partners, wants to finish the public input process before the application comes back to the city planning commission so they can make any changes based on community feedback. The project, as originally proposed, calls for some retail space, as well as some parking under the building. It is estimated to cost $109 million to build.
Another public hearing for a rezoning application, the Elm Office complex at 320 South Main Street, also wasn’t properly advertised for the July 9 planning commission meeting. Thanh Dang, deputy director of community development for the city, said that application will return to the planning commission for a new hearing in October, and could return before the city council in November.
Both applications will return to the first step of the public input process so each public hearing can be properly advertised through every channel.
Mike Parks, the city’s director of communications and public engagement, said advertising for public hearings includes the newspaper notice as well as signs on the property, the issuing of notifications, and placing information on the city website.
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