The Charlottesville Planning Commission will welcome three new members at their October 10 meeting, and all three hail from different parts of the city. The respective residence of the new commissioners speaks volumes about their interest in the planning commission.
The first appointee, Fifeville’s Jason Pearson, is executive director of the Green Blue Institute, which consults with businesses about environmentally friendly design. Pearson bought a house in Fifeville in 2003; during his short time in town, Pearson says that he noticed mixed responses to the zoning code. “Residents [in Fifeville] have seen moments in which the zoning positively affects development, and fails to positively protect it.”
Living in Fifeville made Pearson realize how “good” zoning codes “contributed to quality of life in the city.” In fact, Pearson’s work with defining mixed-use zoning on Cherry Avenue contributed, indirectly, to his decision to seek appointment on the commission. “As a result of presenting in front of the commission, a number of people pushed me to put my name forward.”
For new commissioner Hosea Mitchell, who has lived in or around Charlottesville since 1977, his current residence in Belmont helped him see planning in terms of transportation—especially for the walkers and cyclists in town. “Belmont heightened my appreciation of how pedestrian the [Charlottesville] area is,” Mitchell says. “I want to ensure that the town remains cyclist- and walker-friendly.”
The third new commissioner, Michael Osteen, attended UVA in the ’70s and has been a city resident since 1981. Osteen is a former resident of Dusseldorf, Germany, and puts his multiple UVA architecture degrees to work as an architect at Osteen Phillips Architects. In his application to the planning commission, Osteen cites his love of “multidisciplinary interaction of citizen committees” as a motivating factor.
Pearson, Mitchell and Osteen will serve four-year terms and replace outgoing planning commissioners Karen Firehock and Kevin O’Halloran, whose terms expired in August, as well as Craig Barton, who stepped down for personal reasons. Jon Fink, already on the City Planning Commission, was reappointed for another term.—Brendan Fitzgerald
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