Summary

Planning Commissioner Brent Krasner recommended that more detail be added to proposed amendments to the Small Area Plans (SAPs) governing any Virginia Village redevelopment to clarify housing as the top priority, what forms open space might take, and protections for the adjacent Winter Hill neighborhood, including the distance between the neighborhoods and the location of Virginia Village parking and utilities.
Mr. Krasner received minimal support for his views from his Commission colleagues, who expressed general satisfaction with the amendments as the staff has drafted them.
Planning Commissioners present agreed that Virginia Village should be removed from the Downtown Small Area Plan and incorporated entirely in the South Washington Small Area Plan and that the City’s Comprehensive Plan should integrate the SAPs.
Mr. Krasner and Planning Commissioner Phil Duncan both expressed interest in serving as the Planning Commission’s representative on the five-member Evaluation Advisory Committee. Commissioners will choose their representative at their next meeting on July 15.

Planning Commission takes up amendments to plans affecting Virginia Village

On June 22, the City Council referred to the Planning Commission for its recommendations the proposed changes to the Small Area Plans (SAPs) that govern Virginia Village and the amendments to the City’s Comprehensive Plan regarding the site. [See Pulse post Council Moves Virginia Village Redevelopment Forward, Issues RFP, June 24, 2026.] The Commission is expected to finalize its comments for Council at its next meeting on July 15. The City Council has scheduled a public hearing and a final decision on these amendments for its July 27 action meeting.

During the Planning Commission’s July 1, 2026, work session on Virginia Village, Commissioner Brent Krasner noted that the new Virginia Village District Overlay does not rank the stated goals of housing and open space. Further, he said, while the City’s “Comprehensive Plan says housing is the chief goal” of any redevelopment in this area, “the Small Area Plans governing Virginia Village do not.”

Accordingly, the SAPs, which the staff has proposed be incorporated and the Planning Commission and the City Council expect to fold into the Comprehensive Plan, should clearly prioritize housing over open space as community goals, he said.

In addition, Mr. Krasner prefers that the plans indicate “what form we want open space to take” as well as the relationship of Virginia Village to the adjacent Winter Hill neighborhood. He said he would “be more specific and deliberate” about such protections as the distance between Virginia Village buildings and Winter Hill homes and the location of Virginia Village parking and utilities.

Specificity would be helpful, especially if development is by right

Commissioner Krasner urged being more explicit for this particular, one-of-its-kind site in the City’s plans to defend the zoning ordinance that is being fashioned to govern Virginia Village. He also continues to favor a Special Use Permit (SUP) or Special Exception (SE) process that would give the City more control over what happens at Virginia Village rather than by-right development. However, “I’m reading the tea leaves, and if it turns out that there’s not the support for a [SUP] or SE process, then having as much specificity [as possible in the SAP and so in the Comp Plan] can be helpful,” Mr. Krasner said.

More detailed plans are “not going to have the force of law like an ordinance would have,” he acknowledged, “but [they] certainly help direct what we want and don’t want to have.” Mr. Krasner believes adding specifics would also “assuage some of Winter Hill’s concerns.”

Additional Commissioner comments

His fellow Commissioners tended not to agree with Mr. Krasner. Commissioner Robert Kravinsky said he prefers “to keep these Small Area Plans as general as possible,” adding “the center of gravity on this is happening at the City Council level with lots of robust public discussion.” Mr. Kravinsky does not think the Planning Commission should “box the Council in by writing [specifics] into the SAP.” He did express support for “an SE lite” process for private owners of Virginia Village properties to encourage the creation of additional housing.

Commissioner Phil Duncan said, “I would like to express my support—preference even—for the staff language.” He distinguished between “open space” and “green space,” noting considerable public support “for a linear park [or green buffer or connector] between Big Chimneys [Park] and S Maple Avenue.”

In this, Mr. Duncan agreed with Commissioner Tim Stevens, who noted that when prior SAPs governing Virginia Village were written in 2013-2014, “housing wasn’t quite the urgent crisis that it is today.” As a result, he does not see the same justification now to convert whole parcels to parkland. “I come down on the side of let’s use this area as much as we can that’s consistent with good community compliance with housing,” Mr. Stevens said.

Planning Commission Chair Andrea Caumont joined her other three colleagues in supporting the current staff proposed amendments to the SAP as well as by-right development. She asked Senior Planner Jack Trainor to clarify the City Council’s direction to the planning staff to develop an alternative to by-right development by private owners of Virginia Village properties. He replied that “the request was to consider and provide options to Council about a discretionary process, specifically for open space but potentially for other elements, such as height and lot coverage.”

Commissioners Sharon Friedlander and Daniel Polinsky were not present for the July 1 Planning Commission meeting.

“What are we doing here?”

Commissioner Krasner reacted to Mr. Kravinsky’s comments, asserting that the Planning Commission was in no danger of “stepping on Council’s toes.”

“When it comes to updating the Comprehensive Plan and the zoning ordinance, we have a statutory requirement,” he said. “Council also has a statutory role to play, and we can argue the center of gravity always begins and ends with them—and that’s fine. But, otherwise, what are we doing here? We’re not just here to chitchat. …We make recommendations to the Council,” which they take, don’t take, or modify, Mr. Krasner continued. “We’re the stewards of the Comprehensive Plan, which the SAP is a part of. So, we’re well within our purview here. …We’re not short circuiting anything.”

Mr. Krasner summarized his position: “If [Virginia Village redevelopment] ends up being a by-right thing, it’s all going to come down to the zoning ordinance, and that has to be super specific. I feel it should be a discretionary or legislative process, in which case, having good and firm guidance in the SAP is important because it…gives us something to base our recommendations on.”