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======2025-05-19 Livable Lynchburg Meeting Notes======

* Round Table
Gioia: Finance decoder from Strong Towns
New guy: Is moderating housing panel for CVPDC
    Lets get representation from our group

* Parking Requirements

** What is the desired ordinance for parking requirements change?

Nathan pulls up the [[https://library.municode.com/va/lynchburg/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=CH35.2ZOOR_ARTVISIDEST_S35.2-62.4RENUPASP][current parking requirements]]
 - one space for dwelling unit
 - 1 per 4 persons of rated capacity
   This makes parking lot several times larger than building
   Unless you make a garage
   Right now walkable restaurants are currently illegal

Should we change "required" change to "recommended change?"

Fiscal argument: Reducing parking requirements will help reduce the burden
on small businesses

It works downtown. Lets make it citywide.

Where did the parking requirements come from?

[[http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/PrefaceHighCostFreeParking.pdf][The High Cost of Free Parking]] by Donald Shoup talks a lot about this

There is currently a "Mass Transit" Provision that allows exceptions
when near Mass Transit.

It would be great if we had a Case Study / Personal Story.

The guy who does "Rebuild and Restore" has an [[https://newsadvance.com/news/article_2d68a6f3-60e2-54cc-9a6e-8819b314e176.html][article]] in the News and Advance
about development

They had to tear down the shopping strip by Kroger so that they could
build some extra parking to meet parkign requirements when building the
gas station.

We should possibly consider telling them to do away with parking requirements
entirely.

We should talk to any city council member about this. Sterling Wilder was
worried that reducing parking requirements for the hotel on Rivermont would
cause issues for the neighborhood.

** Cities we could use as examples
there are 3 cities in VA
 - Charllotesville
 - Roanoke
 - Richmond

*Take pictures of the empty parking lots* With this we can show that
the parking requirements are ridiculous

A few similar cities that also got rid of parking requirements:
 - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastonia,_North_Carolina][Gastonia, NC]] (eight lane highway?)
   - old manufacturing city
   - now a suburb of Charlotte
   - going through renewal now
   - but maybe don't mention
 - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_Tennessee][Jackson, TN]]
   - Population 68,000
   - Got rid of parking requirements in 2021
 - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwoody,_Georgia][Dunwoody, GA]]
 - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville,_North_Carolina][Fayetteville, NC]]
   - Was on a podcast and said that they have barely noticed
   
Parking Reform Network has a [[https://parkingreform.org/resources/mandates-map/][map]] of which cities have done this

Show a long list of cities rather than trying to pick a specific city.

* Pierce St Renewal 
Skip this because those people didn't make it

* Finance Decoder
We should do it. Crash analysis studio was too big. Maybe this will be better
Do this on a 1st Saturday?

* CVPDC Housing Panel
SCHEDULED: <2025-06-25 Wed>
Probably at the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance Building

* Lynchburg Road Issues
At Corner of Oakley and Lakeside Dr dangerous intersection with poor visibility

Pictures of the Sidewalk that was unearthed on Pierce St at 5th st
This project needs to be finished at some point

The bus bench on Fort Avenue at Langhorne Rd was sagging but is now fixed

Mobile Repair Cafe

* Bus Service
Make bus free?
Make specific stops free?

* Things we need to do
- Branded vests
  We can buy regular vests and print them ourselves at Vector Space
- Attend a council meeting
- We are currently a Stage 1 Strong Towns Group
  When Gioia becomes a full-fledged leader, we become Stage 2
  If we get more members, we can get to higher stages
  
* Next Project
SCHEDULED: <2025-06-13 Tue>
Attend a council meeting in June

We need to pick a good one to go to. Lets figure out whats on the agenda.

We use Matrix for conversations

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