City institutions discuss changing city permit process

Representatives from Lynchburg’s colleges and other major institutions met Thursday night to discuss the possibility of changing what some feel is currently onerous and unfair city regulation.

The city brought together stakeholders from nearly a dozen private nonprofit institutions to begin exploring alternatives to a permitting system now in place. This discussion, which was initiated with City Council’s approval, stems from Liberty University’s concerns that the city exercises a burdensome level of control over its efforts to build and expand.

City officials say they, too, have recently begun to wonder if the current system is unnecessarily complex. Right now, private schools and other institutions in Lynchburg are required to submit any plans for their campuses to a permitting process that involves public hearings and a review by both the planning commission and City Council.

The final permit, referred to as a conditional-use permit, can only be granted by council and can be made contingent on the institution meeting a set of special conditions.

In lieu of that process, city staff has recently suggested that a new zoning designation could be created to allow institutions to develop by-right within certain parameters. What exactly that would look like has yet to be determined. Staff did present a draft of a possible zoning amendment to council last month, but stakeholders subsequently raised objections to it.

Officials encouraged those present Thursday to discard that document, which they say they now regret issuing, and start the discussion from square one.

“We want to hear your ideas,” said Bonnie Svrcek, deputy city manager and acting community development director, adding that while the city has an obligation to ensure that development is “orderly,” officials do not want to be restrictive.

“We want to respect your plans,” Svrcek said. “Somewhere, there is a balance.”

The ensuing discussion lasted about an hour and a half and produced disparate responses.

Tom Jividen, executive vice president of Centra, said that while he has sometimes been dissatisfied with the current process, he has not found it to be “horrible” and would prefer to stick with it.

“Our properties are in residential neighborhoods. We expect a rigorous review,” Jividen said, adding he did not support the elimination of public hearing requirements. “… I wouldn’t feel good about having a process that did not allow for public input on what we were doing.”

Lynchburg College, which has had to go through the permitting process 24 times in the last 26 years, a rate well ahead of any of its peers, said it was interested in continuing the discussion provided that no organization be required to adopt the new system if it did not agree with it.

Under suggestions made by the city, institutions would have to opt into the new zoning regulations.

“Even if this just leads to losing some of the regulations on the small things, that would be enough,” Steve Bright, Lynchburg College’s vice president of business and finance, said. “We’re not afraid to at least talk about it some more.”

LU, which is experiencing the most rapid growth of those groups present Thursday, continued to express its desire to simply strike all extraordinary permits or regulations for colleges.

“I guess my question would be why does the government have to be this involved to begin with?” said director of auxiliary services Lee Beaumont, adding schools should have the flexibility to develop their property as needed.

The stakeholders group agreed to meet again at some unspecified point in the future. City officials said they would compile additional information regarding the types of things that might be included in a new zoning ordinance for that session.