Category: Harrisonburg Issues
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Short-term rentals like Airbnbs are causing long-term concerns and even longer public meetings
As Harrisonburg continues its experiment with how to regulate Airbnb properties and other short-term rentals, the planning commission — and city council — are now wrestling with how to fairly decide who gets a permit and how to do so efficiently and with the fewest unintended consequences.
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Departing Harrisonburg High School principal reflects on successes and why retiring wasn’t her first choice
An educator for 34 years, Cynthia Prieto has been at the helm of Harrisonburg High School for the last five years. During that time the school has grown to 1,860 students from about 1,460, causing classes to spill out into auxiliary trailers and some teachers to pack their supplies into mobile carts in lieu of their own classroom.
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Council seeks to address housing crunch by creating new zone for smaller lots, approves first 3 Airbnb properties
The city council took steps to address Harrisonburg’s housing and real estate environment Tuesday night with the approval of a new zoning district for single family houses to go on smaller lots and gave the green light to the first three special permits to operate Airbnbs in the city.
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In their new home of Harrisonburg, many Muslim immigrants blend traditions with their new culture
More than 100 people assembled in Hillandale Park last Tuesday to greet each other and laugh, share desserts and drink coffee and tea. Some were Egyptian (they preferred coffee). Some were Kurdish (they preferred tea). And as the adults laughed, danced and talked in their separate pavilions, the children all played together — mostly baseball — and enjoyed Eid al-Fitr.
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‘Maybe he knew something we didn’t know’: The legacy of Quiet T. Please
Quiet Tortouga Please, a local fixture, died May 10, leaving behind a legacy of painstakingly written manifestos and a legend of his own.
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Hoop dreams
Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Anderson Ramos Rodriguez was yet another NBA fan who idolized LeBron James and dreamed of playing basketball himself.
“I’ve wanted to play my whole life,” says Rodriguez, now 18. “That’s what I love.”
Glut of short-term rental applications could keep planning commission burning the midnight oil
The most recent planning commission agenda packet – containing a first batch of short-term rental special use permit applications – was so large that it broke the city website, eventually had to be uploaded in three parts, and pushed the commission’s meeting well past midnight.
June 7, 2019
Harrisonburg’s draft Environmental Action Plan goes public – minus a focus on renewable energy
On Wednesday evening, several dozen gathered downtown to get into the weeds of the city’s latest push to go green. It’s an effort that will be guided by an Environmental Action Plan (EAP), a sustainability roadmap being developed by city staff along with the city’s appointed Environmental Performance Standards Advisory Committee (EPSAC).
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