The City of Harrisonburg hosts pre-application meetings for rezonings, special use permits, major subdivisions (preliminary plats), street/alley closings, and engineered comprehensive site plans twice a month for property owners, developers, engineers, attorneys, etc. to meet with city departments.
The meetings will take place between 1:00-4:00pm:
- On the second Thursday of the month, and
- On the fourth Thursday of the month
Each applicant team will meet with staff typically for up to one hour. (Please have your team block off the selected afternoon between 1:00-4:00pm and as the date gets closer, on on the Monday before the meeting, staff will confirm the time and location of your meeting.)
Prior to making your request for a pre-application meeting, please contact one of the individuals below:
- For rezonings, special use permits, subdivisions, and street/alley closings – contact Meghan.Rupkey@harrisonburgva.gov or Thanh.Dang@harrisonburgva.gov.
- For engineered comprehensive site plans – contact Matthew.Huston@harrisonburgva.gov.
When you contact staff, please provide the following information:
- Address/location of project.
- What upcoming pre-application date your team is requesting. If members of your team have a preference for early or late afternoon, let us know and we will try our best to accommodate.
- Your preference to meet in-person, virtually, or hybrid (both in-person and virtually). Typically in-person meetings will be at City Hall, but may occassionally be moved to another city department office.
- Who from your team is expected to attend.
- When you have a narrative description and/or conceptual/preliminary site layout ready, please e-mail the information to your staff contact at least one week prior to the pre-application meeting. The narrative and layout could describe or illustrate proposed near-term and long-term use and, general terms the characteristics of the proposal including physical features of the property, adjacent roads, internal layout of structures, streets, and entrances. Please email this layout to the staff member you contacted previously so that it can be shared with city departments.
- Advise if you would like to request the Building Inspections Division of Community Development and/or the Department of Public Transportation to attend. Departments typically in attendance include: Community Development, Public Works, Public Utilities, Fire, and the Harrisonburg Electric Commission.
Staff may suggest a different date/time if it is determined that a group discussion with a smaller group of city departments is more appropriate. Also, if you believe your project is not ready for a meeting with the larger group of city departments, you may request a smaller group meeting first and then schedule a larger group meeting at a future date.
If the project requires a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA), then the pre-application meeting shall be held prior to the TIA scoping meeting.
If you have any questions, please contact Community Development at 540-432-7700.