City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. THOMAS J. TOMZAK, MAYOR HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, VICE MAYOR CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. BRADFORD C. ELLIS, WARD ONE HON. GEORGE C. SOLLEY, WARD TWO HON. FREDERIC N. HOWE, III, WARD THREE Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. BEATRICE R. PAOLUCCI, WARD FOUR Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session February 22, 2011 Architectural Review Board and Economic Development Authority Applicant Interviews Closed Session on Pending Litigation The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, February 22, 2011, beginning at 5:30p.m. in City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Thomas J. Tomzak, presiding. Vice-Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Bradford C. Ellis, Frederic N. Howe, III, Beatrice R. Paolucci and George C. Solley. Also Present. City Manager Beverly Cameron, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Economic Development Director Karen Hedelt and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Interviews – Council interviewed the following applicants for possible appointment to the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and the Economic Development Authority (EDA). Robert Carter – When asked what role the EDA played in the City’s Comprehensive Plan, Mr. Carter said he was familiar with the City’s Comprehensive Plan and the EDA’s Strategic plan and they work well together. He said EDA should be supportive to the Council and it would be a great opportunity for them to work together. He said in Stafford the board and the EDA worked well together with the grants. When asked of his opinion on the support of Libertytown by the EDA and their action and role in the development of the arts, he said the arts define the City and makes the City different from other cities and counties. He said if the arts were active and vibrant they would attract people to move and work here. The support of Libertytown with performance measures is important and if they could meet all the benchmarks, the City would benefit from it. Mr. Carter said the City needed to do what was going to work well for the City; such as, incentives he gave an example that if you have 100 1 restaurants already, then incentivizing restaurant 101 might not be beneficial. He said he would like to see incentives for sustainable businesses. He said supporting retail and restaurants was not his favorite, because they could be here today gone tomorrow. He said in Stafford they would try to give incentives that were sustainable and would help in the long term, such as road improvements. When asked what he would do to bring businesses to Fredericksburg, he said he would first move the post office out of town. The EDA has done fairly well with a limited budget by keeping Mary Washington Hospital in the City; this was a bold step and a lot of work went into doing that. He said the City would be alright as long as it kept the hospital and the University of Mary Washington. When asked how he would differentiate Central Park and bring more businesses there, he said he would make it more pedestrian friendly and the traffic patterns easier. He said if you could get more attorneys’ offices and after dark entertainment they would help. Mr. Carter was asked his thoughts on the Main Street Program and, he said he didn’t know a lot about it, but he said when the City had the program before it was needed because there were many vacant buildings downtown. It was his understanding that it would need a lot of buy in from the business owners, but he felt in order for the program to be successful the property owners needed to the weigh in as well. He was concerned because he said there was more than one main street within the City. He thought there were other things that could be done other than a Main Street Program. He was asked if he supported the concept of the Riverwalk, and he said it has a lot of potential. He said the concept was great if it was made to be user friendly for events. He suggested having a series of event to get people used to coming downtown. Mr. Carter said he has been a City resident all his life and he has enjoyed working with the Recreation Committee in getting the pool and he felt he had a lot of expertise to bring to the City. Jon Van Zandt – Mr. Van Zandt was asked if he thought he would have any conflicts with the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, Inc. if he was appointed to ARB and he said he didn’t see any immediate conflict, but if there were any conflicts he would step down from one of the boards. He said he wanted to serve on the ARB because he grew up in Fredericksburg and had a strong background in Fredericksburg and he wanted to see it preserved, he wanted to see it grow in a managed way and the ARB plays a role in that. When asked his hopeful goals or vision for the ARB he said he hoped to bring a practical perspective to the board. He said he worked in the material daily and he believed he could help the ARB and the applicant with 2 material and new methods and how to blend them to tie it back to the history. When asked about his thoughts on expanding the historic district beyond the 40 blocks and whether ARB would play a role in preserving neighborhoods because of the mcmansion issues, he said he thought it would need to be studied and carefully looked into. He said there are some areas that could easily be expanded into, but there were other areas that it would not be so easy. He suggested looking at areas that were already being preserved instead of just opening the circle wider, he said it would be worth looking into. As far as the mcmansions he said ARB could play a role in it, but he thought the City ordinance would be the best way to manage those issues. He said he would not want to see all of the downtown in the historic district because it would be difficult to attract businesses because of the expense and that wouldn’t be good for the growth of the community. When asked if sustainable features could be used in the historic district with the constraints of the district, he said there are great ways to be energy efficient and not be wasteful. He said the best way not to be wasteful is to use what you already have and use the historic materials and fabrics within them and add modern efficiencies to the structures. He was asked if he perceived any obstacles to the work of the ARB as it functions, and he said he could only speak to his dealings within the last 4 or 5 years and the board was very open-minded, but he had heard of times when it was hard to get things approved because they were not open-minded about new materials. He said he would like to see some sort of guidelines to guide along preservation path, but he would not like to see rule that would limit the ARB or the growth of the City. Chuck Reiche – Mr. Reiche said he wanted to serve on the EDA because he recently retired from the Marine Corp. He said he served his country for a long time and now he wanted to serve his community. The EDA interested him as a citizen; he was interested in where the community was going. He said the City had something special as a small City it has a large educated community and he wanted to participate. When asked about his thought on the support of the EDA to the Arts such as Libertytown, he said he felt the EDA should support the arts. He said in all his favorite cities he has lived in drew him there because they had arts. They help to develop the area. On incentives he would like to see them used on businesses that draw significant employment and agriculture to the City. When he was asked about the direction he would like to see the City go, he said he loved the waterfront. He said the river is an untapped resource, but he understood the balance between preserving the natural beauty of it. When asked about the loss of Shopper’s Food in Central Park and whether he thought EDA 3 played a role in incentivizing it to bring businesses, he said EDA does play a role and that he would like to see some sort of evening entertainment there like Dave & Buster’s and places for adults to go. On the Main Street Program, Mr. Reiche was not familiar with it. When asked if he had any ideas on how the EDA could help the City maintain an income stream he stated that defense contractors would be great, but many will not go pass Route 610. If the City had an office park and could get those contractors to come here it would be great for the City. Susan Pates – When asked what she thought could be done to make it easier for applicants going before ARB, she said she would like to know that the applicants project has been looked at objectively. She would also like to hear the Board say thanks to the applicant for living in the historic district, because in this market they have a lot of choices. When asked what her unique qualifications were, she said she was a history major and she taught herself about architecture because of her profession. She said this is something she likes to do in her spare time as well. When asked what her goals would be for the ARB, she said she would keep things as they are to protect and preserve properties. She said in preserving the properties sometimes other materials could be used, it should not be required to use pure materials all the time. When asked whether she would like to see the historic district expanded beyond the 40 blocks to preserve properties and whether the ARB should create oversight for neighborhood, she said she would like to see it expanded. She stated that she would like to see the Washington Avenue homes included. On the oversight, she said that the neighborhood associations were much more rigid than the ARB. She said neighborhoods needed to speak up more about additions, and teardowns and how they make changes to a neighborhood. On the topic of whether there should be a standard list to go by when approving project in the historic district or if the interpretation of the Secretary of Interior Standards should be left up to the ARB to interpret, she said she as a member of ARB you judge what a person is proposing and it could be sensitive, because sometimes it’s a matter of taste. She said members must be diplomatic and handle with sensitivity and give the applicants reasons and understanding why a decision was made. She was asked if she perceived any changes that needed to be made to the ARB and she said the only comments she had heard was that there needed to be better communication between the ARB and the applicants. When asked about infill lots, she felt the mass and scaling needed to be addressed. Closed Meeting Approved. Upon the motion of Councilor Paolucci, seconded by Councilor Devine and passed by the following unanimously recorded votes, Council 4 approved a closed meeting under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Code Section 2.2- 3711(A)(7) for consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to litigation pending in the Fredericksburg Circuit Court: City of Fredericksburg v. Dowling and Geslois, regarding acquisition of right of way for the Rappahannock Regional Heritage Trail. Ayes (7). Councilors Tomzak, Greenlaw, Devine, Ellis, Howe, Paolucci and Solley. Nays (0). None. Return to Open Meeting Approved. Upon the motion of Councilor Paolucci, seconded by the Councilor Devine and passed by the following unanimously recorded votes, Council approved a return to an open meeting. Ayes (7). Councilors Tomzak, Greenlaw, Devine, Ellis, Howe, Paolucci and Solley. Nays (0). None. Resolution 11-13, Approved Certifying Closed Meeting. Upon the motion of Councilor Paolucci, seconded by Councilor Devine and passed by the following unanimously recorded votes, Council approved Resolution 10-85 certifying their closed meeting. Ayes (7). Councilors Tomzak, Greenlaw, Devine, Ellis, Howe, Paolucci and Solley. Nays (0). None. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, the meeting was declared officially adjourned at 6:45 p.m. ___Tonya B. Lacey__ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 5