City of Lynchburg Comprehensive Plan (2023)

Plan website

Consultant: Berkley Group

Project manager: Catherine Redfearn

Project team: Christopher L. Musso, Benjamin W. Tripp, Darren K. Coffey

eTRAKIT project number: #CMP2303-0001

Meeting video

• Name of Plan is “LYH Tomorrow - Planning for tomorrow _together_”
• Berkley Group project rep speaking first
• Speaking about what a comprehensive plan is for those unfamiliar
• “The guiding framework for the community's planning tools: Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Ordinance, Capital Improvements Program, and other Plans & Studies”
• Comprehensive plans legally required by Virginia State Code Section 15.2-2223
• “Implementable, actionable strategies” - buzzwords to live by
• Five year review legally required by Virginia State Code
• Consultants have completed diagnostic analysis of existing comprehensive plan
• Steps:
  • Plan Kickoff
  • Data Gathering
  • Community Engagement
  • Plan Drafting
  • Community Feedback
  • Refinement and adoption
    • VDOT 729 review
• 20 month process
• Planning horizon is 20 years
• Current plan is from 2013-2014
• Not sure yet if this will be an update or a full overhaul
• 1-page agenda is a different document than the multi-page document that planning commissioners
• Consultants are working with city staff to develop public engagement survey.
• Public engagement survey will be open for 60 days
• They're going to run a number of focus groups in 8 categories
  • There will be a focus group on mobility and transportation
  • They're inviting local organizations to participate in these
• There will be 4 public workshops with identical content (dates TBD)
• Discussing data that has been collected. Comp plan diagnostic assessed 2014 comp plan, and found that:
  • need to update populaton projections
  • need to meet VDOT vtrans requirements
  • need up to date state housing code requirements
  • need to update growth areas to reflect current reality
• Berkley group uses APA best practices for planning documents and recommends:
  • expand discussion of housing and housing types
  • include regional coordination policies
  • include implementation matrix
  • update plan structure for readability and use
• Berkley group is conducting department interviews
• departments agree that city is in a great place, has great educational institutions, and a low cost of living
• Departments believe aging infrastructure is an issue in the city
• Going through kickoff meeting attendee questionniare:
  • How long have you lived in lynchburg
  • what does the city do well?
    • Recreation: commissioners value the trail system
    • Business: they agree that LYH has a business-friendly environment
    • Downtown: folks are pretty positive about the area…used to go toward LU area before redevelopment
    • Neighborhoods: think there's a definite community feel and cohesion in neighborhoods
    • Gammon making a point about how he doesn't like dense apartments and how single-family developments are a community benefit to the city
  • what can the city improve on?
    • Affordable housing: Gammon talking about how taxes contribute to housing unaffordability. He makes a point about how renters are non-stakeholders in the city. Some other commissioners are pushing back partially against his point. Gammon pushing back and saying it's not responsibility of the city to supply housing for students. Bald commissioner whose name I cannot remember acknowledges that rental level is somewhat of an issue, but also brings up that single-family-homes anywhere can also be turned into rentals by investors. Other bald guy with gray beard mentions that home rehabilitation is also important in addition to building new stuff.
    • Crime: Lady with medium blonde hair said “there never used to be murders” but now there are more murders
    • Schools: General concern among commissioners
  • What are the key issues facing the city today?
    • Homelessness
    • Lack of developable land. Older commissioner with wavy, gray hair said this.
  • What opportunities should the city take advantage of?
    • Nuclear growth: a lot of entrepreneurs have come out of this industry
    • River access: very difficult to access except at Percival's Island
    • Oops…zoned out here
  • What specific goals or projects would you like to see the city focus on?
    • Trail connectivity regionally - 6pts
      • Chuck Gammon mentions the value of mountain biking trails and trails in general. He's a mountain biker.
      • Bald guy without beard says he values BCT for recreation and transportation purposes. Facilitator asked what the barrier is to achieving better trail system. Commissioner said it's just something the city has to decide to invest in. Another commissioner mentioned she'd like to see more regional trail connectivity and more pedestrian and cycling paths on bridges. She said there's plans to build walking and biking lanes on John Lynch Bridge.
    • Build outdoor amphitheater and riverfront park - 5pt
    • Some housing ones - 4pt
  • Any additional comments or thoughts?

• When I inquired about getting a copy of the presentation from the comprehensive plan kickoff meeting and the “diagnostic report” that was referenced in the same meeting, Rachel informed me that the “Lynchburg Tomorrow” branding is being abandoned due to a name conflict with some University of Lynchburg group.
• New website and documents should be up in a few days

• Catherine Redfearn going over general reminder presentation about what a comprehensive plan is and how the process works
• Reminded everyone to spread online survey far and wide
• Went through phone survey together. Trails, Affordable infill housing, etc. were themes.