By Ryan Alessi, publisher
Editor’s Note: Publisher Ryan Alessi teaches media and journalism at JMU.
Seeking to improve the relationship between JMU and the city while heading off tensions between college students and their neighbors, Harrisonburg will launch a working group of government and university staff, students and residents.
This new group is expected to meet monthly starting in July and will be in addition to the City/JMU Liaison Committee that consists of city and university leaders. Instead of setting policy, this new group’s goal will be to serve as a clearinghouse for concerns among neighbors and students, as well as a venue for regular communication among city and university staff, said Brian Vandenberg, assistant to the city manager.
The group will consist of four staff members from both the city and the university, a representative from the student housing industry, as well as two or three JMU students and two or three Harrisonburg residents.
Participants haven’t been selected yet, but Vandenberg said city staff discussed naming someone from public safety, code enforcement and the city manager’s office. He said JMU might send staff with comparable roles, such as from campus safety, the student life office and the president’s office.
Vandenberg said Harrisonburg residents who would like to serve on the working group should email him and include what neighborhood they live in and a little about their background and interest.
Mayor Deanna Reed told Vandenberg she wants different neighborhoods represented.
Vandenberg said Harrisonburg has looked for inspiration to improve “neighborly bonds” between the campus and neighborhoods by seeing what works at other small cities with large universities, such as Clemson, South Carolina.
This working group, for instance, might receive submissions from residents about frustrations with student neighbors’ noisy parties or trash in yards. At the same time, it would provide an avenue for students to raise concerns about landlord issues, Vandenberg said.
It also can help the university and city coordinate and prepare for big events, he added.
After the meeting, Reed told The Citizen she endorsed the idea.
“To have a committee like this so that residents and students would be able to talk to each other and hear each other’s concerns, I wish we had that back when I was growing up here … instead of feeling like we couldn’t say anything against JMU,” Reed said.
Only three of the five council members were present Tuesday. Two members, Laura Dent and Monica Robinson, were attending the National League of Cities’ Women in Municipal Government Summer Conference in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Robinson hasn’t publicly commented since the arrest of one of her grandsons last week as part of an investigation into an underage girl being involved in prostitution. During the search of two homes as part of that investigation, Robinson’s son and another of Robinson’s grandsons were also arrested on unrelated charges of violating probation and gun possession, respectively.
Reed told The Citizen she didn’t have any comment about the situation and hasn’t spoken to Robinson about her future on the council.
The Lindsey (formerly the Link) expect to return to council in August
One of the friction points over the last year has been the proposed Link Apartment complex, a mixed-use development between Main and Liberty streets that would include apartments that likely would attract JMU students. That project is expected to come back to city council in August.
Some downtown residents strongly oppose the project because of concerns about traffic and other effects on the surrounding neighborhoods. Others have argued that more housing is needed in Harrisonburg and having apartments at the site of the Lindsey Funeral Homes on South Main Street would allow hundreds of residents to live within walking distance of downtown businesses and JMU’s campus.
The city council in April postponed a vote on a zoning change that would allow the project to move forward. Since then, developer Timberwolf Capital Partners revised its proposal for project, which is now being called “The Lindsey.”
Because of the changes, the proposal must go through the city’s planning commission again and is slated to be on the July 8 agenda. Typically, projects that move through the planning commission come before the city council the following month, said Mike Parks, the city communications director.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting:
- The council unanimously adopted the use of a disaster and hazard planning document — the 2026 Central Shenandoah Hazard Mitigation Plan — to help guide city staff to identify vulnerabilities to disasters like droughts, floods, high winds and extreme temperatures. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state require communities to adopt such plans to be eligible to receive disaster funding, said Jamison Ryder, the city’s interim deputy emergency coordinator.
- City staff are preparing to fan out across the city to talk to residents and get input about the city’s zoning and re-zoning processes. Parks, the city communication director, told the city council that the communication strategy will include setting up tables at community events to “meet people where they are,” as well as potentially holding two community input meetings, launching a web page, and engaging with people on social media.
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