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 May 22, 2012 Unified Development Ordinance Downtown Rezoning The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Thursday, May 22, 2012, beginning at 5:30 p.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 R. Cameron, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Planning Director Ray Ocel, Senior Planner Erik Nelson, Economic Development Manager Richard Tremblay and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Others Present. Chad Meadow, Principle Author of the Unified Development Ordinance with Clarion Associates, Steering Committee members Gary Knuckols and Hamilton Palmer. Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). Mr. Meadows explained the objective of the project was to consolidate and modernize the City’s Development regulations into a new UDO. From January to May the UDO was being drafted and reviewed by the Steering Committee. The next step will be a public meeting in June or July. Mr. Knuckols the Steering Committee chair stated that Clarion made the job of the Steering Committee easy and he said there were good stakeholders involved and giving input. The overall view of the new format from the committee was very positive. Councilor Paolucci asked about the changes to the notification process and whether there was an appeal process for an aggrieved neighbor. Mr. Meadows assured her that there 1 was an appeal process. She also asked if other departments were involved in the process. Mr. Meadows stated that all departments were involved. Mr. Meadows said the streamlining review process will reduce reliance on special use permits; there will be a new use for specific standards and new accessory and temporary use standards. Mr. Ellis asked if other city’s had published there UDO manuals online to include hyperlinks. Mr. Meadows said Portsmouth had, but he said most cities’ post PDF files so there is some type of control and so that it could not be tampered with. Mr. Ocel said the UDO would be available online as a PDF. Mr. Meadows discussed the changes to help modernize the code and they include: new access and circulation standards, modern parking provisions, enhancement of the landscaping and tree protection standards, modern open space requirements, new fence standards, refuse collection standards, and lighting standards, and nonconforming site provisions. Mr. Meadows suggested updating the parking standards by reducing some of the standards where it makes sense and he also recommended broadening the downtown parking district to the entire commercial downtown district. He said the shared parking policy that they City has is great, but they suggest that shared parking be approved by staff instead of by Council approved special use permits. The landscaping portion of the UDO has been enhanced to include vehicular use landscaping (parking lots), foundation planting requirements, perimeter buffers, screening provisions for service areas, street tree requirements and specimen tree protection. There will be changes to the modern open space requirement. Mr. Meadows stated that there are some areas on land that are not buildable and are not recognized as open space and with the new UDO that space will be credited as open space. The UDO will also provide more guidance on where the open space should be and how it should be maintained to make it a focal point. The new UDO will also include clarification on lighting standards and changes to the non-conforming site provisions. (See attachments for more information). Downtown Rezoning. Mr. Ocel explained that there are several defining issues in the downtown area. There are several areas in the downtown that are ready for economic development and private investment, but the existing commercial-transitional (C-T) zoning and the Industrial 1 (I-1) zoning does not encourage private investment. A recent text amendment 2 for C-T would move a number of low intensity uses from a special use to a by-right status, it also permits residential uses by right, it amended and the maximum density to 12 units per acre for upper floor residential. The C-T zoning also imposes limitations to include floor area ratio, setbacks and open space. Staff proposes a C-T transitional zoning to create a buffer between higher and lower intensity uses. Currently, the C-T zoning functions as a buffer between the nearby residential uses from the downtown commercial. North of downtown the C-T zoning is fulfilling its intended function and many of the current uses north of downtown are residential properties, but south of downtown the C-T district would create a buffer between downtown commercial and the residential neighborhood. The Railroad Station Overlay District (RSO) includes the area around the train station and train station property. This overlay district leaves in place the use standards of the underlying C-T zoning, but uses the more intense C-D standards including the 50 foot building height. The 50 foot building height has not been used. The concerns regarding this rezoning are that the combination of C-D and site development standards will cause out-of-scale development in the train station area near the residential neighborhood. Mr. Ocel explains that the scale of buildings in the C-D district will be limited by setbacks, required open space and off-street parking. In order to address the concerns staff suggested using the RSO overlay instead of using C-D site development and the C-T uses. The RSO would permit the C-D uses, but require C-T site development standards in regards to the height of structures. Staff believes the permissive approach to by-right will spur investment and the RSO could also permit a 50-foot building height by special use permit and it could be expanded to incorporate the R-8 areas currently proposed to be rezoned to C-D. After the proposed changes the C-T and R-8 areas near the train station would be rezoned to C- D, but impose site development restrictions through an expanded RSO overlay district. After some discussion staff was asked to provide scenarios on the size of buildings based on the new setbacks. (See attachments for more information). Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, Mayor Tomzak declared the work session officially adjourned at 6:46 p.m. Tonya B. Lacey_ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 3