City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD TWO CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. BRADFORD C. ELLIS, WARD ONE HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., WARD FOUR Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session January 13, 2015 Embrey Hills Townhouse Development Closed Session – R-Board Landfill The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor William C. Withers, Jr. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Dr. Timothy P. Duffy, Bradford C. Ellis, Charlie L. Frye, Jr. and Matthew J. Kelly. Also Present. City Manager Beverly Cameron, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Director of Community Planning and Development Services Charles Johnston and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Others Present. Bryan Stelmok, Homeowner’s Association, Jack Carr Embrey Hills Townhouse Development. Mr. Johnston stated the purpose for the work session was to discuss the rezoning of 34.1 acres, currently zoned R-2 Residential, to R-12 Residential. The matter was heard by the Planning Commission, but was changed before it was brought to Council. Staff asked Council if they thought the changes were substantial enough to send it back to the Planning Commission for a recommendation. The changes can be found on the attached staff memo. Councilor Ellis said the substantive changes were to the proffers and he did not feel the need to send it back to the Planning Commission. He felt the project was the same the proffers were just different. Councilor Frye asked about Roffman Road and whether it was going to connect to the new road and Mr. Johnston explained that the UDO make provision that says if there is a public right-of-way adjacent to a property there would be a connection to it. Mr. Frye said through this process the City has learned that Roffman was a public street and he asked where 1 was the City going to go from here and Mr. Johnston said it was up to the City as to whether it would like to improve it and add it to the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP) or have the applicant upgrade it to contemporary standards. Councilor Frye was concerned that the applicant may not want to upgrade it and he wanted to know what would happen then. Mr. Johnston said it is one of two means of access the developer would be using and if he wishes not to make the improvements the rezoning application could be denied because the development would not have sufficient access. Councilor Devine said they were presented with two options, either sending it back to the Planning Commission or moving forward with the application at Council level, but she said she would consider not doing either because there are significant problems with this project. She said she did not want to debate moving the project forward if the project was not something Council really wanted. Councilor Kelly was concerned because there have been a couple of projects that have gone before the Planning Commission but by the time they get to the City Council there have been changes and its seems like a new project. He said a discussion needed to take place so that Council would know what the proffers are and whether Roffman Road would be coming through or not. Councilor Duffy said he was not in favor of the rezoning and he had concerns with the roads and the guarantees of the quality of the road improvements. He did not want to move forward if the project was not going anywhere. Vice-Mayor Withers was concerned with the $2,500 per unit for school capital costs; he said it would not do much for the CIP. He said that number was considerably off and he would not support it at that rate. He had no problem with sending it back to the Planning Commission. He would prefer to see single family homes built there instead. Councilor Ellis agreed with Councilors Kelly and Devine and he said there needed to be a benchmark for school proffers. He said he would like to know the City’s means on proffers. City Attorney Dooley explained that proffers have to be related to the public impact such as schools or transportation. Mayor Greenlaw asked whether the applicant would need to produce a full Generalized Development Plan (GDP) if the application was sent back to the Planning Commission and Ms. Dooley explained that before this could be sent back to the Planning Commission the applicant 2 would need to amend their application. The City Council would either accept the application for review or send it back to the Planning Commission for review. She explained that this is what the applicant is trying to do. Mayor Greenlaw reminded the Council that the significant decision was whether it was in the best interest of the City to rezone to allow the 99 townhomes. She said she was concerned about the rezoning because it seemed as though Council had some doubts about rezoning. Councilor Ellis asked Mayor Greenlaw if rezoning for the townhomes was the best use for the property and she said the original master plan was for single family residential she said the topography was difficult, but a developer could clustered to maximize the density. Councilor Ellis said he would like to see if this would be a catalyst to get the area improved. Councilor Devine said she did not feel comfortable with moving forward with a rezoning until the City had the proffer amount clarified because she knows the $2,500 offer was not appropriate. She said she was not thrilled with the dense area. Councilor Kelly said there are many variables that come into play when developing townhomes. He said if Council had any concerns they needed to let the applicants know up front so that they can determine if they wanted to move forward with the project. Mayor asked Council for clear direction of whether this needed to go back to the Planning Commission and majority of the Council decided it was not necessary to send the application back to the Planning Commission for review. Mr. Stelmok said the ideal situation would be no connection at all to their neighborhood. He said this connection could be a detriment to their neighborhood because it would split their neighborhood in half. He explained that once the widening of Fall Hill was complete Roffman would become a right in and right out road and this would cause additional traffic with people cutting through the neighborhood and the roads were not designed for that type of traffic. He said limited access would be the ideal situation. Councilor Frye added that he feels if the new project was connected to the old it would help to spruce up the old areas. Mr. Stelmok said their neighborhood has one large section and one small section divided by Bragg Hill Drive and this would further divide the neighborhood. He also said if Roffman was made a public street they would lose the ability to enforce trespassing and other illegal activities. 3  Mr. Jack Carr with the Homeowners Association said his main concern would be the dumping of traffic through their neighborhood and the loss of ability to enforce illegal activity in the neighborhood. Closed Meeting Approved. Upon the motion of Councilor Devine, seconded by Councilor Ellis and passed by the following unanimously recorded votes, Council approved a closed session to discuss disposition of publically held real property for the purpose of discussing property at the R-Board landfill where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the City Council, under Virginia Code §2.2-3711(A)(3). Ayes (7) Councilors Greenlaw, Withers, Devine, Duffy, Ellis, Frye and Kelly. Nays (0). Return to Open Meeting Approved. Upon the motion of Councilor Devine, seconded by Councilor Ellis and passed by the following unanimously recorded votes, Council approved a return to an open meeting. Ayes (7) Councilors Greenlaw, Withers, Devine, Duffy, Ellis, Frye and Kelly. Nays (0). Resolution 15-01 Approved Certifying Closed Meeting. Upon the motion Councilor Devine approved Resolution 15-01 certifying the closed meeting; seconded by Councilor Ellis and passed by the following unanimously recorded votes. Ayes (7) Councilors Greenlaw, Withers, Devine, Duffy, Ellis, Frye and Kelly. Nays (0). Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 6:57 p.m. ____Tonya B. Lacey______ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 4