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 June 11, 2019 Main Street Update (and Events) Comprehensive Plan Review: Vacation of Douglas Street, Relocation of Alum Springs Road, Fredericksburg Park Open Space Fredericksburg Regional Alliance Update – Data Centers The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Large Conference Room. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor William C. Withers, Jr., 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, Economic Development Director Bill Freehling, Business Development Manager Angela Freeman, Development Administrator Marne Sherman, Director of Parks, Recreation and Special Events Jane Shelhorse and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Others Present. Ann Glavé, Main Street Executive Director, April Peterson, Main Street President. Main Street Update (and Events). Ms. Glavé gave a brief history stating that Main Street was about 21 blocks making it one of the largest Main Streets in Virginia, nationwide most are about 5-6 blocks. In the PowerPoint presentation she and Ms. Peterson discussed the why, strategies and goals, supporting businesses through all stages of growth, supporting tourism drivers and industry trends, supporting stakeholders in preserving the historic integrity of our district, and finally social media. See Attachment I for more information. Ms. Glavé noted that the downtown dinner was awarded the best fundraiser event for the State of Virginia. Fredericksburg Main Street was going through the accreditation process and that Fredericksburg was selected as one of the localities that the accreditation program will come to visit. 1 Fredericksburg Main Street was selected as the model for the State, as a Main Street that works well with Government. Mayor Greenlaw added that it was extraordinary what the organization was doing and she spoke about how well they worked with the City. Mr. Baroody said he agrees and that he used Main Street as an extension of what the City is doing and he looks at the Main Street staff as an extension of City staff. Ms. Devine encourage everyone to participate in the downtown dinner she said it was fun to serve. She also praised the Main Street staff for their work. Vacation of Douglas Street. Ms. Sherman presented the Douglas Street vacation request. She said William Square, LLC and Liberty Place, LLC were requesting the vacation of the 1000 block of Douglas Street. Ms. Sherman noted that the transportation administrator Erik Nelson said the street functioned more like an alleyway. The request for the vacation was to incorporate Douglas Street into both of the sites. The southern end would serve as an alley for services such as trash pickup, loading and the norther half would be a promenade. The applicants would provide public access easements across the property for public use and they would record easements for the existing water, sewer and other utilities that exist within the Douglas Street right-of-way. The requested vacation is approximately a quarter of an acre. If the property were vacated it would allow for an additional 6 residential dwelling units. The future use of the site means several Comprehensive Plan goals: active pedestrian path, additional modes of transportation through the site incorporating the development of a potential hotel site and incorporating additional residential units. The cost for the vacation was a little over $40.00/square feet or $456,000. Councilor Duffy asked how the pedestrians would get through the area where the alley way would be located and Ms. Sherman said they were still working on that possibly a smaller sidewalk separate from the alleyway to keep the pedestrians safe from service vehicles. Councilor Devine asked if there would be limits on the hours for vehicles coming through the service alleyway. Ms. Sherman said there wasn’t but she could look into it. Vice-Mayor Withers expressed concerned with the number of units and Ms. Sherman said there was a limit of 51 residential units. Vice-Mayor Withers asked what happens if the Area 7 plan was adopted and Ms. Sherman explained that there would have to be a text amendment before that could be achieved. He was concern that once the Comp Plan allows 64 units this property would have additional units placed on it. City Attorney Dooley said Special Use Permit would give the opportunity to review each case on its own. 2  Ms. Sherman explained the next steps would be to go to the Planning Commission for a public hearing then come back to the City Council for action. Councilor Kelly said he would like to see what the parking requirements are for what was going on the property. See Attachment III for more information. Relocation of Alum Springs Road, Fredericksburg Park Open Space. This project follows up on action Council took in 2014 for the rezoning of 22 acres of Fredericksburg Park. She said Fredericksburg Park was requesting to realign the VCR Trail and a portion of Alum Springs Road. She also noted that there was 0.5 acres of open space the developer was required to keep as open space and they wanted to donate the piece of land to the City. The land backs up to the National Park Service. Council Graham asked if there were plans for the commercial pad and Ms. Sherman said not right now. Councilor Kelly asked to see what the plans were going to be for the impacts on Lee Drive and the buffer zones and Ms. Sherman said she could get that. Councilor Devine stated that she would like to see benches put in the open space. Councilor Kelly said he would like to see this project presented to the public again before the City took any action. Vice-Mayor Withers asked if there were proffers on materials because he wanted to make sure the homes had better materials and Ms. Sherman said there were no proffers on the materials. He said when there are projects in the City’s gateways they should be looked at thoroughly. Councilor Graham asked about the closure of the VCR trail and Ms. Sherman said the VCR trail would not be closed but there could be some temporary closures during the day. He also asked for clarification on the connection of the trail from the development. See Attachment IV for more information. Fredericksburg Regional Alliance (FRA) Update – Data Centers. Mr. Baroody said he asked Mr. Curry Roberts to come and talk about his marketing trips over the next year, general updates and dialog about data centers. Mr. Roberts said they have worked 93-94 leads this year for the region, 42 were actual projects. 24 or 25 of those projects came through economic development and the balance were through FRA. There have been three projects announcements this year and there will be three more announced near the end of June. The biggest spike has been for data centers and he has responded to approximately ten in the region. 3  Mr. Roberts explained how they identified data center sites. He said they began 3½ to 4 years ago with Dominion looking on their major transmission lines where they could provide service with minimal impact on neighborhoods. They identified in their service about 40 sites and they did the same with Rappahnnock Electric. They also did the same for public facilities and it narrowed the sites to 25-30 sites across the region. Mr. Roberts said they located the sites and presented them to prospects. He said they have been able to do what no other region in Virginia has been able to do and that was to have one taxing policy for the region. He said this helps the region and allows the prospects to pick anywhere in the region and they will know there would not be a bidding war. He said they have been marketing with Dominion and it has worked will. Mr. Roberts said they were doing a little more focus on site consultants, they represent a 1/3 of all leads nationwide. He said they would be doing a trip with Virginia Economic Department Partnership (VEDP) and they are targeting the top two site consultants in the country. They will be making a trip to Ohio in July and they are the only ally going with VEDP. They will be making a trip in the spring to California and they have speed networking in New York. These trips are all to target lead consultants. VEDP decided they would partner with two regions and cost share and they selected this region to be one of the two to have six to eight site consultants come to the region for a full day. Mr. Curry said they also have had lots of manufacturing and logistic inquiries. He said the number one question from prospects is usually about labor. Mr. Curry also talked about the affects Amazon would have on the region. He said there would be 25,000 jobs over several years. 1.1 percent of the Amazon employees will live in our region. He talked about a meeting with some of the larger employers in the region who will be meeting with three school districts, Germanna Community College and Mary Washington. They are getting together to discuss and start the process of the K-12 programs to help with workforce needs. Councilor Graham asked if the City had more challenges to meet compared to others, when it comes to data centers and Mr. Curry said we just need to get the first one because they tend to cluster together. He explained that there are three different types: enterprise, co-location and cloud providers. Mr. Baroody asked Mr. Curry about the City’s ordinance and Mr. Curry said if we moved down the road on the Hylton property the one hurdle he said the City had was that no one would build a building and not discuss the public utilities. He said capping utilities out front and requiring them to come back for special use permit would be creating a hurdle in their minds. Mr. Curry said the ordinance should specify that it is based on availability. Mr. Baroody noted that Hylton has asked for data centers to be by-right because those prospects are looking at our requirements before 4 contacting us and he asked that the Council consider this. Mr. Curry said the current ordinance would give most developers pause. Vice-Mayor Withers expressed his concern for not requiring a special use permit and Mr. Curry explained that the city only had two sites where the data center could work so they would not be all over the City. Mayor said this would set the plan ahead of time and not after the fact. Ms. Freeman asked Mr. Curry to talk about the Go Virginia Grants Project and how they are part of the Good Jobs Here Plan. Mr. Curry said they got a $21,000 grant from GO Virginia to update the commuter skills study which will feed into the Good Jobs Here plan. He said there are more jobs in the region now than there was seven years ago. He said Middle Peninsula Regional Alliance, the Northern Neck Economic Development and this region got a $50,000 grant to try to help stimulate more applications for GO Virginia. He also talked about the many patens that Dahlgren had and their partnership which gives them access to all the patens and they are trying to keep them in this area by looking at contractors in our region who can commercialize them. He said if they could not keep them in the region they may work with George Mason. Mr. Curry said this was another way to grow jobs here. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 7:12 p.m. _Tonya B. Lacey _______ Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 5