The Mathews County Planning Commission and the Mathews County Board of Supervisors will have a work session on a proposed Village Mixed Use District in Mathews Court House during the planning commission meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the historic courthouse on Court Street.

After the work session, the supervisors will adjourn, and the planning commission will continue with its regular monthly meeting.

In the planning packet, planning director John Shaw included key points regarding the proposed VMU district. He said that the village’s current B-2 district is already mixed use, containing a variety of retail, office, civic, governmental and residential uses that have been established over a long period of time. The proposed VMU district simply expands on those uses, he said.

The proposed district does not require that property be developed for mixed uses, according to the document. Stand-alone commercial and mixed use buildings would both be permitted by right, while stand-alone residential buildings that were not part of a mixed-use project would not be permitted by right.

Residential development—such as apartments, townhouses, and duplexes, including senior housing—is currently permitted only with an approved conditional use permit. But under the proposed VMU, such residential projects would be permitted by right as long as they were part of a mixed-use development or redevelopment.

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