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The James City County Board of Supervisors during their meeting this week approved a new classification for part-time county staff and an amendment to the Promenade residential development.
Part-time and temporary staff
During the meeting, Patrick Teague, human resources director for the county, presented on the creation of 103 part-time regular positions that will cost the county $23,747, primarily in wage increases.
The issue first came to light over the summer when one employee with the county voiced concern about his classification as a temporary part-time employee.
The employee said he could work the same number of hours with the same responsibilities as a permanent part-time employee, but they would receive benefits and he would not.
RELATED STORY: JCC looks at changing employee classification after part-timer brings up discrepancy in benefits
Since then, the county has been working to find a way to correct the issue and in November, supervisors approved an increase to the hours threshold part-time regular employees needed to meet from 780 hours per year to 1,040 hours per year in order to qualify for benefits.
The conversion will change 103 positions from temporary to part-time regular positions in order to comply with the county’s personnel policy, with 79 of those positions being in the Parks and Recreation Department.
“As a new program or park opens, it’s typically staffed with a mix of regular and temporary,” Teague said. “But as that park increases visitation and we have more programs offered, the need for those temporary staff really becomes a regular need.”
The conversion was unanimously approved and the change will take effect beginning Feb. 1.
The Promenade at John Tyler Highway
Supervisors also heard a presentation for amending the previously adopted master plan for the development of The Promenade.
The development, located on John Tyler Highway, has been in the works since 2015 and will be 204 dwelling units with eleven 10-plex buildings, 40 duplex buildings and 14 multi-family, or live-above, units.
Currently, 125 units have already been constructed.
However, instead of constructing the 14 live-above units the applicant, Franciscus at Promenade, has proposed building a 10-plex unit that would be entirely residential on the parcel located at 5311 John Tyler Highway, said Jose Ribeiro, senior planner for the county, during the meeting.
With that, the land use designation, which was originally approved for commercial, office and multi-family, will be changed to a mixed-use structure containing 10 residential units.
The amendment would also revise the land use designation for the remaining outparcels which were originally approved for commercial office and family units to permit stand-alone commercial and office structures, Ribeiro said.
Ribeiro said the revisions would not change the previously approved residential density of 8.3 dwelling units per acre or the number of total residential units.
County Attorney Vernon Getty also advocated for the change during the meeting, saying it would make the location more marketable to commercial developers.
“I think this has really helped with the revitalization of the whole Williamsburg Crossing project,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve seen there’s been an investment in the shopping center to get occupancy up and there’s a whole just good vibe in that entire development now.”
However, Supervisor John McGlennon said he has not supported this development and doesn’t see the justification in the addition.
“Given the fact that there is no guarantee…that the commercial construction would actually take place especially in a shopping center that has yet to fill a number of their existing spaces,” he said.
Other supervisors showed their support for the change.
The board voted to approve the change 4-1, with McGlennon in opposition.
