Danville’s Planning Commission will consider a special use permit to allow for a vocational school at its regular meeting Monday at 2 p.m. The permit request pertains to an existing building in the Nor Dan Shopping Center.
“The school will provide training in several skilled trades, including retail and commercial painting, drywall, professional maintenance and carpentry,” says the staff report in the meeting’s agenda packet.
Professional maintenance training includes HVAC, electrical, plumbing and grading work, according to the special use permit application.
The application identifies a 17,000-square-foot tenant space in an existing commercial building. The site already has parking and utility infrastructure to support a vocational school, and no exterior modifications to the building have been proposed, according to the staff report.
The applicant, SPM Empowerment and Skills, Inc., is based in Winston-Salem, though it has a Danville location on Industrial Ave. where it teaches trade skills and offers apprenticeship programs.
The city’s future land use plan “supports service-oriented and commercial uses in existing developed areas,” says the staff report. “The proposed vocational/trade school is consistent with this intended land-use.”
The proposal also supports the plan’s Lifelong Learning goal, which encourages workforce and trade skills development opportunities for residents, the report says.
Also on Monday, the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority will meet at noon and the Danville Utility Commission will meet at 4:30 p.m.
On Tuesday in Danville, the Industrial Development Authority will meet at 10:30 a.m. and the Airport Commission will meet at 3 p.m. On Thursday, the Commission of Architectural Review will meet at 4 p.m. and the River District Design Commission will also meet at 4 p.m.
In Pittsylvania County, the Board of Zoning Appeals will meet Monday at 6 p.m.