Imported/2025-05-19-ll-meeting-notes

2025-05-19 Livable Lynchburg Meeting Notes

WE KNOW THE FORMATTING IS VERY BAD

• Round Table

Gioia: Finance decoder from Strong Towns New guy: Is moderating housing panel for CVPDC

Let's 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