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. JASON N. GRAHAM, 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 January 8, 2019 Unified Development Amendments Form Based Code/Street Standards and Comprehensive Plan Amendment – Area 6 Utility Billing Update Trails – 5 Year Plan The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Withers, Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Charlie L. Frye, Jr., Jason N. Graham and Matthew J. Kelly. Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, Assistant City Manager Doug Fawcett, City Attorney Kathleen A. Dooley, Director of Planning and Building Services Charles Johnston, Senior Planner Michael Craig, Community Development Planner Susanna Finn, Transportation Administrator Erik Nelson, Finance Director Robyn Shugart and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Unified Development Amendments Form Based Code/Street Standards. Senior Planner Craig presented a PowerPoint presentation on form base code amendments. He said it went through the Planning Commission with a 6-1 vote. In the presentation he gave an overview of the City’s land use, (existing residential areas, existing employment centers, historic downtown, evolving areas). Mr. Craig also discussed the T-5C transect and how it would be transformed through the three levels of standards: urban fabric, frontage, lot and building type standards. See Attachment I for more information. Councilor Graham asked if the urban standards address the parking minimums and Mr. Craig said it did not and it would be a topic of the Area 7 plan. He said this area is still automobile oriented. Councilor Graham said he would like to see it taken away and let the market decide. He 1 was concern that if the City dictated how much parking they should have it may stunt the growth of the businesses. Vice-Mayor Withers said this was set up for residential mixed used and it concerned him that when the property was redeveloped that he didn’t know if it would be eighty percent (80%) residential or possibly forty percent (40%). His concern was where the revenue would come from if a commercial area changed to 80% residential. Mayor Greenlaw explained that with redevelopment there could be the same amount of commercial as what exist today because the buildings are going to be more than one story. Vice-Mayor Withers said he was struggling with supporting this change if the City was not sure where it was going. He said the residential portion should be by special use permit only. Councilor Kelly said the City has never looked at the impacts and he said with the City being only 10.4 square miles it should be more particular. He said doing the form based piece meal, makes it hard to understand how it would fit in the entire City. Mr. Craig said he understood, and that was why they started in Area 6 because they knew Commercial Highway was not the future of the Route 3 corridor. Councilor Kelly said he could not understand what the changes would do and he asked if there was a way to get an economic study on what the dollar impact would be on this level of changes. He said the City needed to know how the development happening in the counties would impact the City. Councilor Graham raised the question to staff, he wanted to know if there was a ratio that showed how much commercial development or taxes would support a certain amount of people. Mr. Craig said he could get the tax data. Vice-Mayor Withers said his concern was losing commercial property to residential and how the City would make up the difference in taxes lost. Mr. Craig stated that the plan was not to redevelop the City into residential they were actively redeveloping employment centers, stadium, etc. Vice-Mayor Withers asked if the landscape was a type B and Mr. Craig said it was not. Vice- Mayor Withers suggested there should be some sort of berm along the Route 3 corridor because it would look so much better than flat land. Comprehensive Plan Amendment – Area 6. Community Development Planner Finn presented a PowerPoint presentation and in the presentation she reviewed the Amendments in Chapter 10 to include maker land use transects and apply them to the Small Area Plan 6 in a new General Land Use Plan and Chapter 11 to create a Small Area Plan for planning area 6, along the Princess Anne Street, Fall Hill and Route 1 corridors and surrounding neighborhoods with land use and transportation policies. She also covered Tech Zones, Neighborhood Protection, Maker 2 District, Redevelopment, Access and Mobility, the Planning Commission discussion, VDOT STARS (Princess Anne Street and Route 1), VDOT STARS (Fall Hill Avenue and Route 1), Neighborhood Analysis, open space, Transfer of Development Rights and Display of Current Residential Density. See Attachment II for more information. Utility Billing Update. Finance Director Shugart informed the Council that the City currently billed for residential solid waste collection services on the same bill as the water and sewer services. The City currently has 4,061 residential solid waste customers. However, the bills are not for the same time period of service. Water and sewer bills are billed in arrears and residential solid waste collection are billed in advance. The time period in question are both two months, but not quite the same two months. The residential solid waste is billed on a 1st of the month to 31st of the following month, while water and sewer are billed on or about the 10th of the month. This lag must be accounted for in order to synchronize solid waste collection to the water and sewer billing period. The City’s new software system from Tyler Technologies will replace the current software for utility billing. Transitioning to the new system highlighted the need to synchronize the time periods for billing. Staff presented two options and said there would be a revenue impact in the current year. There would be a one-time deferral that would result in a reduction in collection for the current year in the amount of $136,000. She explained that the revenue would eventually be collected as services terminate, because there would be no refunds given for pre-paid solid waste services at the time of service termination. Ms. Shugart said they would communicate this over all the media outlets. Councilor Devine asked if the short billing period could be looked into during this time. Ms. Shugart said it becomes a challenge because of the process it takes to get the bills in the mail she was not sure anything could be done but she was willing to look into it. Councilor Devine asked if there was a change to the solid waste such as charging everyone would it affect this process and Ms. Shugart said there would have to be an analysis done. Mr. Whitley said the new system can do whatever the City wants it to do. Trails – 5 Year Plan. Transportation Administrator Nelson presented a PowerPoint in his presentation he talked about the summary of Fredericksburg’s existing infrastructure, Council priority-#12 Neighborhood Connections, Priority implications-An interconnected community, a process Extensive & ongoing, projects submitted for funding, projects funded/in-work, studies, pathways plan, five–year implementation plan, five–year implementation plan–year 1, five–year 3 implementation plan–year 2, five–year implementation plan–year 3, five–year implementation plan– year 4, an five–year implementation plan–year 5. See Attachment IV for more information. Councilor Kelly discussed the state funding that is available for trails projects and repairs along the trails. He said he would like to see some of the money being used for the upkeep of the trails. He wanted to know how trails would be integrated in to urban projects in the future. He said he would like to have conversations with the community to allow them to be apart and get their buy in on the trails. Mr. Nelson stated that they have gotten community buy in. Mr. Nelson said they would continue to pursue money but in order to make trail connections they must pursue funding. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 7:06 p.m. _Tonya B. Lacey _______ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 4