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 Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., WARD FOUR Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session August 11, 2015 City’s Transportation Priorities and New Commonwealth Transportation Board Project Selection Criteria Regulating the Hours of Businesses in the Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning Requiring a Special Use Permit for Retail On-Premises Sales of Alcoholic Beverages in the Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning Rezoning in the Lafayette Corridor and Area Plan Priorities Noise Ordinance The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, August 11, 2015, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Councilors William C. Withers, Jr., Kerry P. Devine, 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, Assistant City Attorney Robert Eckstrom, Planning and Services Director Charles Johnston, Deputy Planning Director Erik Nelson, Zoning Administrator Michael Craig, Public Works Director Doug Fawcett, Police Chief David Nye, Police Captain Brian Layton and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Others Present. Virginia Department of Transportation District Program Manager Jason Robinson. Transportation Projects. Deputy Planning Director Nelson presented a PowerPoint presentation on the transportation projects that covered: the New Process, Planned Projects, Available Funds, Interim Funding, Scoring and Ranking Projects, Scoring Factors, Schedule, Practical Matters, Projects in Long Range Plan, Statewide Projects, District Projects, Potential City Projects, Transportation Projects in City and Recommendations. (See attachment A for more information). 1  Mayor Greenlaw asked if a third rail would impact any of the plans and Mr. Nelson said they would not impact the plans, but they would need to be considered. He said there was an interest in keeping the station in the City, and that there would be some substantial changes. Mr. Cameron explained that staff would submit a resolution to Council at the September 8 meeting for Council to approve the application and Mr. Robinson said they would not need the resolution until December 1. Councilor Frye brought up a concern about drainage issues on Lansdowne Road on the City side of the tracks and Mr. Fawcett said he would discuss that with Councilor Frye offline. Councilor Kelly said the City needed to determine its priority projects and he also stated that the chance of getting funding for the projects was slim because the City does not have a large tax base. Councilor Withers further explained that the larger counties would receive more funding because they have a better tax base and could put up more money for their projects. He said in order to compete the City must come up with more funds. Mr. Fawcett said the HB2 funding was 12% of all VDOT funding packages that would be available over the period of time. There are still revenue sharing and transportation programs, as well as separate money just for bridge projects that could provide funding for the City’s bridge projects. During this same time period the Fiscal Revenue Sharing Program will come available and staff plans to apply for funding for the pavement maintenance and reconstruction as the City had done the past two years. This is a 50/50 program. Mr. Robinson stated that during his meeting with staff it was determined that the City was out of big project. He said they had identified things on the book that offer hope for the future such as Route 3 access management improvements, a Route 2 and 17 corridor study was being done in Spotsylvania and this was could be an opportunity for Spotsylvania and the City to determine what they wanted Route 2 to look like. Spotsylvania was also looking at the Route 1 and 208 corridor he said this could also be an opportunity for the City to work with Spotsylvania. Councilor Kelly stated that the Route 2 and 17 corridor was critical. He also added that anything on Route 3 should be next on the City’s list. Mr. Robinson said VDOT always working with Spotsylvania County on ideas for Route 3 around the mall. He also added that the river crossing was considered a regional project and FAMPO would be applying for this project through the HB2 as a regional project for the south and north bound segments. Mr. Robinson explained that VDOT had identified $18 million worth of safety funds and they had 2 looked at several corridors and Exit 130 was identified as one of the high crash and safety areas. He said they plan to address the weave as you come off of I-95 Exit 130. Regulating the Hours of Businesses in the Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning. City Attorney Dooley answered whether Council could require a special use permit (SUP) for the sale of alcohol in an eating establishment in the Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning District (CT) and could Council regulate business hours of operation in the CT district through the zoning ordinance. She concluded that the Council does possess legal authority to require a special use permit for the sale of alcohol in an eating establishment in the CT district and to regulate hours of operation of businesses within the district. Existing businesses would not be exempt from compliance with the hours of operation regulations, but existing uses would be grandfathers against the SUP requirement. In regards to hours of operations, she said it was rare to see a locality regulate hours of operation for all businesses in a zone. She said the hours were often used as a tool with special use permits. (See attachment B for more information). Mr. Craig described that the existing land uses in the CT district as mixed. The CT districts contained 194 residential dwelling units, thirty-seven of those units are single family detached homes, 151 were apartments and six were charitable homes. There are also roughly 159 businesses operating in various CT zoning districts, 113 are office uses which equals 64.57% of all businesses in the CT. Ten of those uses were restaurants and seven of those restaurants serve alcohol. (See attachment C for more information). Mr. Craig explained that business operations produce noise, light, and traffic and the CT district contains tools intended to mitigate the impacts of business operations on adjacent residential uses. Limitations on hours of operation would be an extension of the existing regulatory tools in the CT district. Hours of operation for 82 out of 159 businesses operating in CT were analyzed to see what impact limiting hours of operations may have on the existing businesses: • 1 business opens before 6 a.m. • The remaining 79 businesses open at 7 a.m. or later. • 77 businesses close at or before 11p.m. • 4 businesses close after 11 p.m. on weekdays • 3 businesses are open after midnight on weekends. • 4 businesses may be open 24 hours a day. 3 Nine businesses operate outside of the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. (See attachment C for more information). Council Kelly asked what was meant by a show of record for SUP and Ms. Dooley explained that it meant that the City should show that it was a valid exercise of the zoning authority. He also asked how shifting the hours would affect the Police Department and Chief Nye stated that from a public safety standpoint the earlier the bars close the better it was for the Police Department. Councilor Frye was concerned with limiting the hours of operations for businesses such as Labor Finders because those employees needed to be there early. After some considerable discussion Council agreed to forward these items to the Planning Commission for recommendation. Noise Ordinance. Assistant City Attorney Eckstrom presented the noise ordinance and stated that there were two types of prohibition: general prohibition of unreasonable noise and a list of specific prohibitions. He said general complaints that were heard about the current noise ordinance were: the general prohibition was too vague; the ordinance was ineffective at addressing noise created by people leaving bars; ineffective at addressing loud motorcycles and barking dogs. Most of the citations have been for parties or loud music a business’s downtown. There was about a 60% success rate in court with the current ordinance. Mr. Eckstrom said the plan was to address the vague prohibition by making it more specific for yelling, shouting and college parties. He said they also looked at decibel meters and they decided against including those in the ordinance. (See attachment E for more information). Council followed up with discussions on how the Police would monitor and enforce which Chief Nye said regular patrols would help to eliminate some of the issues. Lafayette Corridor and Area Planning Priorities. Planning Services Director Johnston recommended not moving forward with the rezoning of Lafayette Boulevard and suggested the top priority should be the area planning process. Mr. Johnston explained that he would need a vote from Council to move forward with the area planning and they would need to determine which two areas they would like to start with. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 7:09 p.m. 4 ______Tonya B. Lacey ____ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 5