City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD FOUR CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. JASON N. GRAHAM, WARD ONE HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., WARD TWO Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session January 26, 2021 Board of Building Codes Appeals Interview Draft Noise Ordinance Amending City Code to Remove the Crime of Profane Swearing in Public Acceptance of Gordon Shelton Boulevard The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, beginning at 5:30 p.m. using electronic communication through GoToMeeting pursuant to and in compliance with the City Council Ordinance 20-05, an ordinance to address Continuity of City Government during the pendency of a pandemic disaster. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Charlie L. Frye, Jr. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Jason N. Graham, Matthew J. Kelly and William C. Withers, Jr. Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, Assistant City Manager Doug Fawcett, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Assistant City Attorney Dori Martin, Police Chief Brian Layton and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Board of Building Codes Appeals Interview. Ms. Columbo gave her background stating that she was a graduate of Virginia Tech, she had a Bachelor of Architecture five-year Professional Degree, she was a licensed Architect in Virginia and the District of Columbia. Ms. Columbo has been practicing for 22 years and she has lived and practiced in the City since 2002. She had lots of experience working with the building department, zoning department and the Architectural Review Board because a lot of her work had been in the downtown. Ms. Columbo stated that as she walks through an appeal she would look to see why there was a denial and whether there was a financial hardship and take a step back and look at all the information to include what the state code required and she would try to meet in the middle. She said the health, safety and welfare was most important. She said she would do her 1 best to be impartial and make the best decision. Ms. Columbo said she loves her community and being able to use her skills to help her community was the right thing to do. Draft Noise Ordinance. Police Chief Layton presented a PowerPoint presentation and he discussed he Current Ordinance – Positives, Current Ordinance – Concerns, Recommendation, Noise Ordinance – Map of Downtown Business District, and Issuance of Permits. See Attachments II and III for more information. Councilor Devine said she was struggling with plainly audible sounds because some businesses were not adhering to a reasonable amount of sound and it was really loud. Chief Layton said right now there was nothing they could do about it because of the way the ordinance was written but the proposal states that at 200 feet and if the sound could be detected by an officer they would be in violation of the noise ordinance. She was not sure the 200-foot boundary would be workable. Councilor Kelly asked several questions and Chief Layton stated that he would pull together statistics to answer his questions. He did however explain that if a person was first warned and continues to violate the ordinance then a summons would be issued and they would have to go before the judge. He noted that this was a good tool because the judge had been holding them up and not throwing them out. Mayor Greenlaw said she was happy to see a mechanism to tone the noise down. Councilor Kelly asked that staff sit down with businesses that would be affected and let them know of the proposed changes. City Attorney Dooley explained that in 2015 many of the Cities rewrote their ordinances because they all used unreasonable loud standard, thinking it was acceptable but Supreme Court thought otherwise. She said the plainly audible standard was one of the methods that had been adopted. It was an objective standard that could verified and shown to the violator and she was confident in the legality approach. She said the ordinance makes a distinction between downtown and residential. The changes in the ordinance would still allow music but at a reasonable level. Councilor Withers noted that there was a need for something and he was ready to push this forward. 2  Councilor Duffy said he appreciated the clarification and he thought maybe 200 feet was too short a distance but he said something needed to be done quickly. Amending City Code to Remove the Crime of Profane Swearing in Public. Chief Layton noted that in 2020 Virginia legislation removed profane swearing as a criminal offense in the Virginia Code. He said this law had remained on the books in Virginia despite the 1971 ruling by the United States Supreme Court, which said it was contrary to the first amendment. He said in order to align with the State Code it was time to update the City Code to match the State Code and remove the language of profane swearing. Councilor Devine asked what places were defined as public and Chief Layton said places where people congregate, streets, sidewalks and parks. Mayor Greenlaw asked if someone was speaking before the Council and used profanity could she call them on it and City Attorney Dooley explained that she could because it would be during public hearing or comment portion of a public forum which is time created for comment within a public body and the commenter must respect and adhere to the decorum of that public body. Acceptance of Gordon Shelton Boulevard. Assistant City Manager Fawcett reviewed the resolution adding City streets to the VDOT system to qualify them for VDOT annual maintenance payment starting July 1, 2021. Staff recommended acceptance of the streets to include Gordon Shelton Boulevard, Adair Street, Hospitality Lane so they could begin accumulating funds attributing to these streets before the streets have to be improved upon. He anticipated that with the addition of these streets it would add approximately $78,000 to the annual maintenance payment. He said the streets were old and would need to be upgraded at some point. He said there was always a debate of when we should add a street to the street system. Mr. Fawcett was asked about the downside of delaying and he explained that the City was already responsible for the roadway and if it was not added to the street system the City would lose the funding for repair of the road. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 6:31 p.m. 3 ______________________ Tonya B. Lacey, MMC Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 4